Visiting family
by Diana2122
Summary: Gibbs gets a visit from his niece who accidentally gets involved in a case. Warning: Corporal punishment of a teenager in later chapters.
1. Reunion

_Summary: Gibbs gets a visit from his niece who accidently gets involved in a case._

_Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on "NCIS"._

_Warning: Corporal Punishment of a teenager in later chapters._

* * *

"Uncle Gibbs!"

Gibbs turned his attention away from MCGee's computer screen and looked up. Everyone on his team did the same and did their best to act as if they were perfectly used to seeing their boss with a teenager. Gibbs stood and walked over to greet his niece who was running towards him, arms open.

"Heidi, it's good to see you." he gave the girl a hug and almost sneezed as his face was accidently buried in her long brown hair. She usually wore it braided but obviously not today. He released her and looked into those sparkling chocolate brown eyes, almost as brown as her hair. She had grown since he last saw her, and that was only a couple of months ago. She was beginning to look less like a child and more like an actual adult each day. And she must have gotten taller too.

Gibbs had informed the team the day before that they'd be getting a visitor for a few days. Heidi had a school break and sometimes during those she'd come stay with Gibbs for a few days. Gibbs brother Jim and his wife Carla had to work and they didn't consider Heidi old enough or actually trustworthy enough to be left alone all week. One or two days they were fine with, but definitively an entire week. And since Heidi didn't mind and Gibbs was glad to have her stay with him he didn't see a problem with her spending a few days with him. Though he had informed both Heidi and Jim and Carla that Heidi would have to hang around NCIS during the day time because he unfortunately could not take a full vacation while she was there. He had to work and the team needed him there. Heidi had been happy to hear that. She had met Tony and Abby before and she loved them both like older siblings and certainly didn't mind spending time with them and her uncle at his work.

Tony had watched the scene from his desk and now got to his feet to greet the little rugrat.

"Hey Heidi! What's up my little conqueror of Pin ball?!"

Heidi gave him one of her "Oh, you're so lame but I love you anyway" kind of looks and grinned. "Hi Tony! I'm fine and still leading, thank you."

Tony arched a brow at that overly confident comment. How could she be so sure of that? She certainly hadn't watched him play lately. He had gotten a lot better. "Well, it has been a while since I last saw you. A year at least. How old are you know? Ten?" he asked in a teasing tone with a smug smile.

"I'm thirteen, Tony!" she yelled loud enough for the Special Agent to almost take cover behind his boss.

"Okay, that's enough playing for now. People are trying to work around us." Gibbs scolded lightly. "Do you have any homework to do?"

Heidi opened her mouth to protest against doing homework as the first thing she did arriving at NCIS, one of her favorite places in the world with something going on all the time, but Gibbs beat her to it. "I know I know. It's your school break but I happen to know your math teacher gave you some homework to do during this week so you'd better get started on that. And what better place to get started than here at NCIS?" he grinned at her small pout.

"You know Uncle Gibbs, I AM old enough to recognize sarcasm when I hear it."

"I'll show you around later, I promise. As soon as I can. We're in the middle of wrapping up a case we've been working on so I need to finish that first, okay?"

Heidi smiled at her uncle. Gibbs always explained why he made her do something or why she wasn't allowed to do what she wanted and she really appreciated that. She started towards Gibbs desk to get started on her homework when she heard the familiar sound that Abby's shoes made when she moved really fast with small steps towards something she wanted.

"Is she here yet?! Is she?! Where?!"Abby was running from the elevator to the bullpen yelling excitedly and waving her arms in the air. When she was close enough she spotted Heidi and she flew at her hugging her and lifting her from the ground at the same time. She let out a small yelp but quickly relaxed and hugged Abby back.

"Hey Abs!"

Abby continued hugging her "You've grown! I'm so happy to see you and you've grown and I'm happy and Gibbs is happy and…"

"Give the girl some air, Abby" said a voice coming from behind them. Ducky had decided to leave autopsy and take the elevator up to see their guest. Ducky had seen Heidi quite regularly as she had grown up and he had also grown quite fond of the girl. "I wouldn't want to have to do an autopsy on another victim choked to death."

It was a good thing that Heidi had been around Ducky before, Gibbs thought. Therefore she understood his unusual sense of humor.

"Hello my dear, do you remember old Ducky?"

"Duuucky" Heidi sighed rolling her eyes. "it's only been a freaking year. Of course I remember you!" she was beginning to wonder why half of the people she knew at NCIS talked to her as if she were five years old. She had turned fourteen four months ago for crying out loud. But she decided not to say anything about it. She was just so glad to see them all again. She had definitively missed them.

Gibbs turned to his youngest agent, still seated by his computer. "Special Agent McGee!"

McGee almost snapped to attention when hearing his name. "Yes, boss!"

Gibbs grinned at the Special Agent's expression. "This is my niece Heidi. Heidi this is Special Agent McGee."

Heidi eyed McGee from his head to his very expensive shoes. "Is she new here?" she asked.

"Nah, not anymore. But he was on vacation last time you visited here, so you haven't met."

Heidi stopped deliberately making McGee nervous and took a step forward and reached out her hand, McGee took it in his and they exchanged small smiles.

"Hello Heidi, you can call me Tim."

"Hi, Tim." she said, eying him enthusiastically. She found it fun when the team got new members, especially when she could watch them trying to adjust to her Uncle Gibbs ways. He expected them to work hard and solve their cases effectively despite their heavy case load or exhaustion. But then, his team was the best, without a doubt. He sometimes treated her the same way as he did his team regarding her work in school. He expected her to do her best. He also had rules that he would sometimes recite to his team. Some of them applied to her too, but not all of them. She remembered the time she had put one of their kitchen knives in her school bag and brought it to school. She had been ten years old then and had heard Uncle Gibbs tell Tony, "Rule number 9, DiNozzo, never go anywhere without a knife." One of the other kids had spotted it during their lunch break and alerted a teacher. Heidi had been brought to the principal's office pronto for some explaining. He had called her parents who had been told to come pick her up. Later at home all hell had broken lose. Heidi had tried to explain to them that Uncle Gibbs had told her it was very important to always carry a knife in case something unexpected happened but they unfortunately didn't feel the same way about it. Since Uncle Gibbs lived a few miles away they had called him on the phone and let him talk to Heidi about the incident. She had argued that if the rules were so important then they should apply to her too, not just his team. Gibbs had said that she had a point, so he was going to sit down at some point and write down the ones suited for her to follow and then hand them to her written down on paper so she could study them. Heidi had been thrilled to hear that but she had stopped jumping up and down while holding the phone, when Gibbs had added, "But if you ever so much as touch a knife again with the purpose of using it for anything else besides cutting food or eating, I'll put you over my knee faster than you can say rule number 9"

After that she had had a Gibbs rule of her own to follow regarding knives. And she followed it. She knew Gibbs didn't make empty threats.

Heidi was thrown back to reality when she heard Abby ask, "When is Ziva due back here?"

"She was supposed to be back here two hours ago." Tony answered sounding worried.

"Who is Ziva?" Heidi asked. There had obviously been some changes around here since her last visit.

"Ziva is another Agent here who has been working under cover for the last fourteen days. We're expecting her back today." Gibbs explained to her and then glanced at the elevator, obviously hoping to see her exiting it soon.

"So the case is finished today when she returns?"

"Yes." Gibbs answered her. " She is supposed to have collected enough evidence for us to go in and arrest the one we've been after."

Heidi had always shown a certain interest in the work at NCIS and Gibbs felt a certain pride in that. She asked questions because she wanted the knowledge which was a good thing.

Finally the elevator doors opened and the former Mossad officer approached them. She looked perfectly all right but very tired. She was wearing something that definitely didn't resemble her usual outfits for work. She stopped in front of her colleagues who seemed a bit shocked at the sight, all except Tony who just seemed amused. No one on the team had yet seen her in the outfit she had had to wear while under cover. It was a tight top with yellow bright stars on and a short black skirt, shoving way too much than any woman in her right mind would be comfortable with.

Tony opened his mouth to speak but Ziva put up a hand in the air, warning him not to speak. "NOT…A…WORD, DiNozzo!" she said and then turned to Gibbs. "I look like a prostitute." she stated upset.

"Well, isn't that what you went undercover as?" Tony teased and smiled while eyeing his partner.

For a moment Ziva almost smacked him. "No, Tony! I went undercover as a waitress, NOT a prostitute!" she corrected him, even though she knew he knew that.

"Oh, I see, so this was just a bonus for us then?" he grinned.

Ziva reached for a stapler to throw at him but Gibbs grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Hey, don't hurt the office equipment!" he understood Ziva's frustration with Tony's teasing but he wasn't going to let her beat up Tony…at least nor right now. He had had to put in a lot of work convincing her to go undercover the way this case had required in the first place and Ziva had been most reluctant with the idea from the start.

They had gotten a report two weeks ago that the body of the female Lieutenant Melissa Andrews had been found in an alley three blocks from a bar owned by a man named Freddy Collins, a known drug dealer. The bar was usually crowded with people drinking and doing different kinds of drugs. Collins had also made a habit out of using the waitresses working for him for other things than just serving drinks. Some of them were occasionally taken to the back of the bar to please either him or one of his important customers. Hence Tony's teasing. Lieutenant Andrews' shipmates had told NCIS that she had been seeing Freddy Collins for about two months. She had spent a lot of time hanging out at the bar but when she had noticed that some of the waitresses were under age and that they were also forced into the back of the bar to be raped, she had gotten scared and tried to leave him. She had according to one of her shipmates received a phone call from Freddy Collins early the night she was murdered, saying he needed to see her one last time. She had gone to the bar and never returned to the ship. The cause of death had been an over dose of heroin but her shipmates claimed they had never suspected she was using and her CO claimed she had never acted strangely and he had never suspected she'd be the type to use drugs at all. Ducky had also found bruises from several people holding her down right before the heroin was injected into her vein. Gibbs had sent Ziva under cover as a waitress hoping she might be able so catch Freddy Collins in action either with minors, drugs or find evidence of murder, since they hadn't been able to find anything tying him directly to the Lieutenant's murder. He was however their prime suspect and Gibbs was determined to catch the "dirt bag" as he had called him after seeing the bruises and expression of fear on the dead woman's face. Although it had not been the cause of death, the Lieutenant had also been submitted to torture before she died. The rumor was that no one ever leaves Freddy Collins.

Ziva had been under cover for thirteen days now and finally collected enough evidence against Collins for NCIS to bring her out from under cover and bring Collins in. Ziva had worked hard on getting close to the man and he now believed she was loyal to him, not to mention under his control.

"We can go get him, Gibbs. I have a witness who saw Lieutenant Andrews being dragged into Collins' office. She also heard screams coming from there and claims she caught a glimpse of our Navy Lieutenant being tortured by Connell before the door was closed. She will testify."

"Good work, Ziva. Anything on the heroin?"

Ziva grabbed a chair and sat down, massaging her temples for a moment before answering. "Yes, we have him on film using. I also know where he keeps the drugs in his office, underneath one of the floorboards under his desk."

"Good then it's time to go get him. Is the witness safe?" Gibbs asked.

Ziva wiped at her face with the back of her hand. It was raining outside. "She left the bar with me and I told her to go home and wait to hear from us."

Heidi was beginning to feel a bit ignored standing around listening to a woman she had never met briefing her Uncle Gibbs. Sure, she found many things at NCIS interesting but she knew there wasn't a chance in hell that she would be allowed to go with the Agents when they made an arrest, so she found it boring having to listen to them planning to make one. Finally Gibbs noticed her bored expression. "Before we move I should introduce my niece, Heidi, to you Ziva. She's here visiting me for a few days."

Ziva looked with tired eyes at the girl. "Hi." she said and gave the girl a small smile and a nod. She was not very good with kids and definitely didn't feel like wasting the little energy she had left on entertaining some kid, even if she happened to be Gibbs' niece. Not when she had a case to wrap up.

Gibbs looked at Ziva. He hadn't often seen that tired expression on the determined former Mossad Officer's face. She had been out in the field, under cover, for a long time now and there was definitely no shame in her being tired for once though. In that moment Gibbs made a decision. He looked at first Heidi and then Ziva. "Well, you two will have some time to get know each other now." he said as he retrieved his gun and badge from his desk.

Ziva gave him a puzzled look. "Wait a minute, Gibbs! Are you telling me we're waiting to arrest Collins? Why? Why don't we move now?" she asked skeptically.

Gibbs strapped his gun on. "We are moving now, Ziva. Me and McGee and DiNozzo. You, on the other hand, are staying here. You're going to get cleaned up and get some time to rest here at NCIS." he declared.

Ziva could hardly believe her ears. There was no way she was staying at NCIS while the rest of the team captured a criminal that she had been under cover, collecting evidence against for fourteen days. "Gibbs!! I'm NOT staying behind on this one! That man is a monster and I have had to basically suck up to him, waiting on his hand and foot for days! I want to be there when we take him down."

Gibbs sighed inwardly. He actually understood Ziva, however, this was not a debate, it was an order, and she was not going to get her way on this one. "Ziva, you are tired and you need to rest. I don't want you in the field bringing in suspects in the state you're in right now." he explained, trying to be patient, for her sake, for his own sake but mostly for his niece's sake. He didn't want her to see him lose his temper with one of his agents on her first day visiting him for a long time. However enough was enough, he felt when Ziva started to protest again. "Officer David!" he roared. "You're staying!" he stood in front of her, staring at her. "I have another assignment for you until we get back. One that doesn't require as much effort as bringing in Connell.

"Oh?" she said confused.

"Look after Heidi while we're gone. Show her around NCIS, it's been a while since she saw the place."

Once again Ziva just stared at her boss, stunned at his words. "Gibbs, I am not a babysitter!" she complained.

Gibbs grinned a little at the field Agent's distress at the situation. "I know. But I am giving you an order and I expect you to follow it." he said sternly.

"But why can't Abby or Ducky…?"

Abby stepped in. "I would love to take her Ziva, but I haven't finished with the DNA samples from the Commander Yarrow case last week yet. I need to finish it." she looked apologetically at the Agent, wishing she could help her out.

Ziva turned to Ducky "Sorry, my dear, but Gibbs does not want Heidi down in autopsy."

Ziva glanced at Gibbs who nodded. "Her parents don't think she's old enough to see dead bodies." he explained calmly, glancing at his young niece who was beginning to look impatient.

Ziva looked pleadingly at Gibbs for a second. She would have liked a better explanation for why she was being forced to stay behind but she realized that Gibbs shouldn't really have to offer one. An order was an order, no matter how stupid or unfair it was.

When Gibbs felt sure Ziva had accepted her fate he turned to Heidi. "Honey, as you heard I have to leave for a while now with Tony and McGee. While I'm gone you'll be with Ziva, okay?"

Heidi wasn't fond of the idea. Usually Gibbs would try to avoid leaving NCIS when she was visiting and if he had to then he would leave her with Abby. Abby had said she didn't have time now, so Heidi understood that she would just have to respect that. "Why can't I stay alone? I'll sit at your desk and do my homework, I promise."

Gibbs smirked. He remembered the last time she had promised that. He had found her watching an interrogation behind the glass. The interrogator hadn't even known she was watching so sure, she hadn't really been hurting anything. But she HAD made a promise and then broken Gibbs' trust by choosing to go do something she knew she wasn't allowed to do without Gibbs or someone else on his team present. Gibbs had punished her by making her swab the floor in Abby's lab an entire afternoon.

"Sorry, Heidi. You'll be in Ziva's care this time until I get back. I won't be that long, I promise. Ziva is going to take you around NCIS and then out to get some ice cream at the coffee shop around the corner." he did his best to try and cheer her up.

Heidi groaned a little. So far she didn't like Ziva. It was just a feeling she had that told her that they would not get along. Ziva also didn't seem crazy about having to watch her, or "babysit" as she had chosen to put it. She wasn't a kid, she thought. She shot the woman a quick defiant glance. It was quick but Gibbs caught it. Not wanting to embarrass the girl in front of Tony, McGee, Abby and Ducky, he guided her a few steps away from the group.

Knowing that his little niece had a habit of getting into trouble and also knowing that she could be very defiant at times, especially towards people she decided she didn't like before even giving them a chance to show her that they were actually decent people, he fixed her with his Marine stare.

"Now I want to make some things very clear to you, young lady. While I'm away Ziva is in charge. If you misbehave or disrespect her in any way I will find out when I get back. And believe me, you won't like the consequences if I hear of such behavior. Have I made myself clear?" he asked, hardly even blinking as he spoke calmly to her.

Heidi swallowed hard. She knew how Gibbs had sometimes chosen to punish her for being disrespectful over the years. She knew how much a spanking from him would hurt and she did not want to find herself over his knee any time soon. "Yes, Uncle Gibbs." she mumbled.

He replaced his Marine stare with a warm smile and patted her on the shoulder. "I'll see you soon."

A few minutes later Gibbs, Tony and McGee headed out, Abby returned to her lab and Ducky had joined Palmer in autopsy. Ziva was headed for the showers to clean up, with a sulking teenage girl reluctantly following her.

To be continued


	2. A little tour

Title: visiting Family

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on "NCIS", I'm just borrowing them for the story.

Author's notes: I'm sorry that it took me so long to update this story but now I've finally found the time to finish chapter two. I hope you like it and please let me know what you think of it and what you think should happen in the story.

Ziva sat at her desk, carefully studying the girl who was momentarily in her care. Heidi was seated at Gibbs' desk, doing her math homework. Ziva didn't have a lot of experience handling kids. It wasn't that she didn't like them; she just usually didn't get along that well with them. It wasn't very different this time either. Heidi had hardly spoken a word to her since Gibbs had left the building, and she didn't really care, as long as the girl did what she was told.

The former Mossad officer was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard Heidi speaking to her. "Hello?! Are you even listening to me?! Ah, never mind I'll just go anyway then." She must have missed that the girl had been talking to her. Heidi got up and started walking away from the desk. Ziva got to her feet and was at the girl's side in two quick strides, putting a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from going any further.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm bored from sitting here. I want to go see Abby." She said and tried to keep walking, but found that she couldn't.

"I don't think so. Gibbs told you to do your homework at his desk so you will finish that first." She said determinedly.

"But I've been sitting here for more than an hour now!" Heidi argued, frowning. "I WANT to go."

Ziva locked eyes with the girl. "You GO BACK to Gibbs' desk and finish your homework NOW."

They stayed like that, staring at each other for a minute. Finally Heidi spat out "OR WHAT?" defiantly.

Ziva hadn't really thought about that yet, but she wasn't going to let it show. She thought about it for a moment and then answered, trying to sound as convincing as possible." Or I will carry you over there and tie you to the chair." She said, meaning every word of it…almost.

Heidi kept staring at the woman in front of her, thinking she was obviously about as much fun as watching paint dry. Would she carry out her threat? Heidi wasn't sure. She didn't think Ziva looked very strong, but she wasn't ready to see if she was right, because what if she wasn't.

The girl decided to try another approach. "Look, Ziva. I know Gibbs told you I'm supposed to do my homework. But I have homework that will keep me busy a few hours every day this week. So I'm not supposed to do it all in one day, that's not what he meant. I've been sitting here for the past hour and I've gotten a lot done. So can I please go see Abby now?" she asked in a more polite manner.

Ziva thought about it. Gibbs HAD told her to show Heidi around NCIS while he was gone. And he hadn't given her very specific instructions regarding the girl's homework. "All right." She said. "Let's take a little tour of the building. But we'll visit Abby's lab last because she had a lot of work to do. If we're lucky she'll be done by the time we get there."

The tour of the NCIS building was pretty much the same as always. Not much had changed around there since Heidi's last visit. She was shown the bullpen, the interrogation room, the conference room and even MTAC since there was nothing real important going on up there so they were allowed inside. When they were done looking around upstairs and headed for the stairwell Heidi suddenly took a quick turn and headed into the director's office. She wanted to see Jenny, it had been quite some time since she last saw her. It didn't take long before Ziva noticed the sudden disappearance of her charge. She looked around her. "What the…" she exclaimed when she turned around. She rushed after Heidi and found the door open to the Director's office. She rushed in and found the girl standing next to the Director's desk, happily talking to her.

"Director, I'm so sorry…" Ziva started.

Jenny looked up at the Agent. "It's fine, Ziva." She said and smiled. "Heidi and I know each other. She just wanted to say hello. Though I was going to come see her before the evening any way but I guess she took matters into her own hands."

Ziva sighed. "Evidently."

Heidi grinned at Ziva and then turned to the director. "You know, she's not very observant, that one." She said, pointing at Ziva.

"Well, she usually is." Jenny defended, thinking Ziva didn't deserve a lecture from her right now when she already seemed so agitated.

"Let's go, Heidi. The Director probably has work to do." Ziva said, gesturing for Heidi to head for the door.

"We're going to go to Abby's lab now." Heidi explained to Jenny.

"Oh, I see. You say hi to her from me."

Heidi nodded and started towards Ziva. She stopped when she heard the Director clear her throat. "Oh and Heidi..."

Heidi turned around. "Yes?"

"Try and stay out of trouble this time…for your sake and for Gibbs'. You're giving him grey hairs you know, and he doesn't need any more of those." She smiled.

Heidi grinned. "I will."

"Hi Abby!" Heidi said.

Abby looked up from her computer. "Oh hey Heidi, Ziva!"

Ziva and Heidi entered Abby's lab and Ziva stopped at the door. "Are you busy? Because we can come back later." She said, stopping Heidi from fully entering.

"Nah, come on in. I'm almost finished." The Goth girl said. Heidi ran over to her and hugged her. "Have you had a nice tour of the building?" she asked.

Heidi wrinkled her nose and glanced over at Ziva, not daring to say too much at that moment. "I guess" was all she said. "Abby, can I borrow your computer and check my email?" she asked.

"Sure, take the one in my office, sweetie."

Heidi went through the glass doors and Ziva waited until they had closed behind her before she let out some of her frustration. "Abby, how do you put up with that kid? She's impossible!"

Abby smirked. "Who, Heidi?" she joked.

"Yes of course I mean Heidi." Ziva continued, without even hearing the humor in Abby's voice. "She's so defiant and obnoxious and…"

Abby interrupted her. "Look, Ziva, I know Heidi can be a bit difficult at first before you get to know her but it will get better." She assured. "I remember the way she was around Tony at first. She really didn't like him and refused to talk to him. All because he had called her "a little kid" when they first mer."

Ziva threw her hands up in the air. "But that is what she IS, Abby! How can I treat her as anything else besides that?" she asked confused and frustrated at the same time.

"But she's fourteen, Ziva. Don't you remember what it was like to be fourteen? You see yourself as an adult and you don't understand why nobody else will see you that way and why everyone keep treating you as they always have before. You keep hoping that turning fourteen will automatically make people start treating you as an adult and it's hard on you when you realize that that is not the case."

Ziva thought about that for a moment. She did remember what it had been like for her, but she had actually been treated like an adult sooner than she had wanted instead. "So, you're saying I should treat her as more of an adult and she'll stop giving me a hard time?" she asked. She was sick of this girl's attitude already. She thought about telling Gibbs but that felt like ignoring a problem that she needed to deal with herself instead of running to him.

"I'm not saying I'm certain the problem will go away but it might work."

Ziva nodded, deep in thought. "Maybe I could give her some space, get off her head a little then."

"Off her back, Ziva, off her back." Tony had just entered the lab. He walked up behind her and playfully tugged her ponytail.

She quickly slapped his hand away. "I'm not in the mood, Tony." She said.

"Oh, the kid give you a hard time, huh? Can't imagine that. " he said with sarcasm, remembering his first meeting with her.

"How did it go? Was Collins at the bar?"

Tony cleared his throat. "Well, there was a slight problem. Collins seems to have disappeared. No one has seen him since you left. We put a lot of pressure on the people working there and a few of his friends and no one knows anything."

"But I thought you practically had this guy already." Abby said.

"Yeah, so did we. We should have kept a closer eye on him." Tony said, looking like he wanted to kick himself.

Ziva looked slightly shameful "It's my fault. I thought I had his full trust. He must have become suspicious of me."

Tony put a hand on her shoulder, sensing for once it wasn't a time for jokes. Ziva had worked really hard under cover for the past fourteen days, and to find out that she had failed convincing Collins she was trustworthy was not something she took lightly, and Tony knew that. "It could have happened to anyone. Just let it go. We'll get him." A familiar noise came from Tony's pocket and he picked up his phone. "Yeah? Okay, boss, I'll be right there. Yeah, I'll let her now." He glanced at Ziva. "Even though it's suicide." He murmured and then hung up.

"What did he say?" Ziva asked.

"I wish I had some better news for you but you're still on "Heidi-duty". We're going back out to find your witness and bring her here. She's kind of our last chance at catching this guy with the evidence we have right now. Gibbs said to tell Heidi we'd be back in an hour." He finished the sentence and then ran for the door to exit the lab as fast as possible before Ziva took her anger out on him.

Abby laughed quietly at the scene.

"I'm gonna kill Gibbs." Ziva said quietly, cursing under her breath.

To be continued


	3. Pissed off

Title: Visiting Family.

Chapter 3

Heidi exited Abby's office and saw the look of dismay on Ziva's face. "What's the matter? Someone tell a joke?" she asked in the most bratty type of voice she could manage.

Okay, she has definitely made it her mission to dislike and piss off Ziva, Abby thought. Considering the mood the former Mossad Officer at the moment she figured she wasn't far from snapping.

"Heidi." She scolded. "You shouldn't talk to Ziva like that. She's a nice person you know. And besides, you know you're just going to end up in trouble with Gibbs if you keep this behavior up." She reminded the girl, hoping the thought of having an angry Uncle Gibbs in front of her would help her keep in line.

Heidi just looked away. She wasn't going to be criticized in front of Ziva, not even by Abby. She wasn't going to show weakness that this woman could take advantage of. "Forget it, Abby, she's acting like a ten year old so I doubt she'll have the maturity to drop the attitude." She said.

Abby closed her eyes for a brief second, wishing Ziva hadn't said that. Up until now she had felt she had a chance of finding a way to get these two to make up, but not anymore. A comment like that would go straight to Heidi's ego and she would not be letting it go any time soon.

Though she felt it was probably already a lost fight, she still wanted to give it a try. "Why don't I go with the two of you to the café across the street so we can get some ice cream?" she suggested.

Heidi was glaring at Ziva who was glaring back but then finally let her gaze leave the girl and find Abby instead. "Abby, that's nice of you but you really don't have to keep us company to make sure everything goes well. Gibbs told me to watch her and I can handle it. We'll be fine and will be back here before they get back." She assured the forensic specialist.

Abby hesitated but found there was not much she could do. She understood that Ziva felt a need to complete her "assignment" from Gibbs by herself, no matter how demanding it was at the time.

Ziva and Heidi were walking across the street to the café Gibbs had more of less ordered Ziva to take his niece to. Ziva wasn't sure how hard Gibbs usually was on the girl but if she had been responsible for her she would have decided that her behavior so far hadn't exactly warranted her ice cream, but a darned paddling instead.

They stood in line without saying a word. When it finally became their turn to order Ziva asked Heidi what flavor she wanted. Heidi refused to answer and just looked away. Ziva sighed. This was just perfect. "Give her chocolate, kids usually like that." she said, ignoring Abby's warning about ticking the girl off by calling her "a kid".

That was it. Heidi had had it with being around this woman who obviously had zero respect for her. The moment Heidi felt certain Ziva was busy paying the man she started walking the other way, back towards the NCIS building. She had almost reached the building when she crashed into two boys trying to push past her on the crowded sidewalk. "Hey!" she yelled, offended as she was almost knocked to the ground.

"Oh I'm so sorry." One of them said, apologetically. He was blonde with curly hair and wore jeans and a black t-shirt. "That was totally our fault."

"Yes, it was." Heidi growled and tried to keep walking. She was too angry with Ziva to even notice how good looking the two boys were. The other one had dark hair and dark eyes and wore his hair in a pony tail.

"What is such a good looking girl as you doing on the street by yourself like this?" the blonde boy asked.

Heidi's eyes flared "I AM old enough to be out on my own you know! I don't need a babysitter to watch me or anything!" she said, surprising the two boys who obviously hadn't meant to accuse her of being too young to be out alone, but merely give her a compliment.

"Hey settle down. That's not what we meant." The blonde one said, laughing a bit at her annoyed expression. "You seem a little upset. And it's not good for girls to be upset, that means they'll frown which will eventually give them lines, and we don't want that to happen to you, since you're so cute the way you are."

Heidi sighed. What kind of stupid moron would fall for their kind of stupid flirting?

"I tell you what. Why don't you come with us? We're going to go for lunch two blocks away and we'd love to have you as company. Come on, what do you say?"

Heidi thought about it for a second but then shook her head. "No, I don't think so." She said hesitantly. She didn't want to get in trouble with her uncle, even though she was pretty mad at him too at the moment.

"Oh come on." The dark haired boy said. "I thought you just said you were old enough to do what you wanted."

That comment made Heidi think. She WAS old enough, even though no one seemed to want to see that. Maybe this was her chance of showing them she could make a choice of her own and still be fine afterwards. If she did then Uncle Gibbs might loosen up a bit and maybe the rest of them at NCIS as well. And besides, why shouldn't she go? These two boys seemed all right to her. Perhaps eighteen years old and pretty bad at flirting but right now anyone was nicer company than Ziva.

She looked up and smiled at the two boys. "All right, I'll come with you. But only for a short while because then I have to get back."

"Sure, only for a short while." The blonde boy repeated and then smiled at his friend. The three of them walked down the sidewalk and headed towards the alleged café.

To be continued


	4. Heidi's bad decisions

**Author's notes: Hello all! Chapter four of this story is now finished. I hope you like it and please let me know if you have any thoughts or comments.**

Ziva entered the bullpen at the NCIS building and saw Gibbs, McGee and Tony standing there. She couldn't believe this was happening. She had lost Gibbs' niece. Or actually she hadn't exactly lost her. Heidi was mad at her and she had deliberately wandered off. Now of course Ziva knew that the girl wasn't ten years old and that she could find her way back to the entrance to the Navy yard by herself and the guard would probably let her pass because he had so recently seen her with Ziva so that wasn't really a problem either. But never the less this was a nightmare. She wasn't sure how Gibbs was going to react to this mess.

Hen Gibbs saw Ziva come running into the bullpen he noticed that she was looking very worried. He also noticed there was no pouting teenager behind her, which wasn't what he'd expected.

"Ziva, what happened?" he asked immediately.

"Gibbs I…uh…I…there was a…" she stuttered, not knowing how to explain what had happened.

"Just spit it out already. "Tony urged her.

Ziva looked at Gibbs with guilt in her eyes and he arched a brow impatiently.

"Heidi ran off somewhere when we went to get ice cream right outside the Navy yard." She explained, trying to stay calm and make sense in what she was saying. She glanced at Gibbs to try and see if he was already furious, but she was surprised to see no anger what so ever on his face.

"What happened?" Gibbs asked calmly.

"I was paying for the ice cream and when I turned around she was gone. She must have decided to leave when I wasn't looking. She must have moved fast too because I looked for her but I couldn't see her anywhere. I returned here because I figured she might have gone back to the building, but I can see I was wrong in my guess there as well." She started pacing back and forth while the rest of them just stared at her. They had never seen her like this before.

Finally Tim stepped in. "Relax Ziva." He said and stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders. "We'll find her. It can't be that tough. She probably just wanted to wander around by herself and decided that it was a good idea to bolt when she had someone not quite used to keeping an eye on her on duty. She'll probably even come back by herself. Right Gibbs?" he asked, focusing on his boss for a moment to see if he was correct in his guess.

Gibbs had stood quiet. He replied, still calmly but with more anger in his voice this time. "When I get my hands on her she's going to regret having that idea ever enter her mind in the first place." He snarled. He then turned to Ziva. "This was not your fault. You didn't do anything wrong. It was Heidi's decision to go UA so she's the one I'm holding responsible and trust me…she'll notice." He started to reach for his coat when he halted and once again turned to Ziva. "Is there more to tell?" he asked, making Ziva wonder if he was a mind reader.

"Well, I guess you could say that." Ziva said. For some reason she felt a bit ashamed to admit they hadn't really gotten along. And she no longer wanted to tell Gibbs about the girl's behavior while he was gone. She understood that Heidi was in trouble as it was and thought that perhaps that would be enough. Gibbs was not an easy person to be in trouble with.

Gibbs was still waiting for an answer and Ziva knew there was no use in trying to hide the truth from him. "We didn't get along in the way she and Abby seem to do." She said.

"Was she disrespectful towards you?" he asked.

"Well yeah but…"

"No buts." Gibbs cut her off. "Either she was or she wasn't and in this case she clearly was. I warned her about that before I left and she should have listened to me then. I take being disrespectful towards adults very seriously and I expect her to behave and listen to all of you when I'm not around. And this is no news to her, she knows how I feel because I've made it very clear several times. Unfortunately it's obviously time to make it clear to her once again." He said and put his jacket on, almost ready to leave. But before he left he decided it was time to bring Ziva up to speed on the case as well. "We have a problem with wrapping up this case. DiNozzo." Gibbs signaled to Tony to do the explaining while they all headed out.

" The girl who you said had claimed wanting to testify. We went to her apartment and found her packing up to leave it permanently. We asked her where Connell was and at first she refused to answer… she claimed she didn't know. We pressed the matter further for a while and she finally admitted to having told him about you after you left her. He knows you tricked him and he knows you are a cop. She said she believes he'll come after you, because that's what he does to women he believes he owns when they try to leave him, and you have done worse than that to him." Tony finished, looking concerned.

"You betrayed him." McGee concluded what they all knew.

Ziva remained quiet, stone faced. She didn't fear this man at all. She had been with him the last two weeks and sure he wasn't a pleasant person to be around at all, and he was very dangerous, but she didn't fear him. It wasn't the first time she had been a target to some creep's anger, and it certainly wouldn't be the last as long as she remained at NCIS or any Agency or Police Force in the world. She studied the concerned expressions on Tony and McGee's faces and the expressionless face on her boss which meant that he too was slightly worried, and she said "Let's just focus on finding Heidi first and deal with me not being in danger what so ever and being fully capable of taking care of myself later, ok?" she said with a certain amount of sarcasm and rolling of her eyes.

Heidi stood at the intersection. She had stopped because she expected them to turn right and head towards a café she knew was in that direction, but instead the two boys, whose names she now knew as Marcus and Oscar, seemed very eager to go left. Left did not seem right to her. Left seemed more like going into a more or less deserted alley. But she had come this far and she didn't want to chicken out now. So what if they weren't going to a café, maybe they were going to an even cooler place. Or perhaps they weren't but anything was better than going back to NCIS right now and facing either an angry Uncle Gibbs or an angry Ziva if he hadn't yet returned. Either way she was screwed and she knew it. So she followed them down the alley. It seemed like the back of some restaurants because there were plenty of dumpsters and even a few typical alley cats hanging around there.

"Are we close to the café?" she asked, beginning to become a bit anxious that perhaps they were leading her into an even worse place than NCIS was to her right now.

"Um…yeah… it's just a bit further." The blonde boy, Marcus answered her and then glanced at Oscar and grinned a little. She found it strange that they didn't even try to conceal their smirks to her. It was becoming obvious that they were lying. She just hoped that they weren't lying for a reason such as wanting to hurt her in some horrible way.

"Okay, this was a really stupid decision." She thought, summing up the situation and making up her mind to get out of there as soon as she saw her chance. The two boys were staying pretty close to her now, not giving her much room to bolt.

Suddenly she got angry. "Hey, I don't think you're telling me the truth!" she accused them, placing one hand on her hip. "There is no café close by and unless you tell me where we're really going then I'm turning back right now."

In that moment they stopped. Heidi saw what had caught the boys' attention. It was a door and there was some pretty loud music coming from there.

Both of the boys were facing the door and now they turned facing her, smiling. "You're right, Heidi." The dark haired boy, Oscar said. "This isn't exactly a café. Or you could say it is because we DO serve things, but not exactly cookies and coffee. " he said.

Heidi was beginning to relax again. At least they weren't planning on raping her. And now they even had her attention and curiosity. "What is this place then?" she asked and took a step closer to the closed and locked door.

"It used to be a small, abandoned warehouse but we've made it ours."

"Your what?" she asked.

Oscar shrugged. "Let's just say we're a small gathering of friends who like to get together and spend time outside of school and away from restricting parents or teachers." He said. "Come on in and enjoy freedom. I think you'll like it and you definitely seem to need it." With that comment he opened the door and gestured for her to step inside. "It's voluntary of course!" he yelled so she could hear him despite the noisy music and the cries from people inside.

She hesitated a moment but then asked herself what could go wrong. The place seemed to be filled with people so it wasn't going to be just her entering a room with two boys she didn't know. No one could argue that. She stepped inside and was met by a sight she had not seen before. There was a bar set up at the far end of the rather large room and a boy who looked around sixteen years old standing behind the bar. He was mixing drinks together himself in all kinds of different colors and serving them to the kids in the room. There was furniture placed around the room and lots of kids sitting talking or making out with each other all around them. In the center of the room was the dance floor and it was full of kids dancing to the loud music coming from the stereo with its stereo amplifier in the corner. All windows were nailed shut and covered with sheets protecting the people inside from being seen by any outsiders walking by. It was quite a place.

She followed Oscar and Marcus over to the bar where they both grabbed a drink from the bar tender. "Here, have a drink! It's on us!" Marcus yelled.

Once again Heidi hesitated but then accepted the glass with the pink fluid, smiling. "Thanks." She sipped it and then grimaced at the taste. It didn't exactly taste good, but then again she had never tasted alcohol before so perhaps it would take her a little while to get used to the taste. She took another sip and tried to look as if she was enjoying it. She asked the boy behind the bar for a glass of water and he motioned for her to come behind the bar to him. She did so and watched him pull out a bottle of water and pour her a glass. Behind the bar they were slightly more sheltered from the music and didn't have to shout quite as loud. The boy introduced himself to her as Josef.

"What's your name? Do you go to school in this neighborhood?" he asked her, seeming curious.

"It's Heidi, and no, I don't. My uncle lives here and I'm just here visiting him." She answered and glanced around the room trying to spot her two companions somewhere in the mix of people jumping up and down and dancing and yelling.

"I take it he doesn't know you're here?" Josef said and poured himself a drink of the pink stuff and poured some down his throat.

"No, he certainly doesn't. He would kill me if he found me here." She said. "He's the overprotective type, you know."

"Yeah, I recognize the type. I have one at home too." He said and served two kids stopping by the bar on their way out on the dance floor a drink each. "That's why we meet here. To get some well deserved privacy and to get to hang out without someone supervising us. Some of the kids here are over eighteen but most aren't and we think they too deserve the chance to drink alcohol and be adults, even though the law says otherwise regarding that of course. But we never bring anyone here who's below fifteen, we're very careful with that and with whom we trust."

Heidi gulped at hearing that. She was only fourteen, she thought Marcus and Oscar knew that but they obviously didn't. How would these people react if they found out? Would they simply throw her out? Or would they hurt or threaten her because they might be afraid she would rat on them. Good thing she hadn't accidently mentioned what Uncle Gibbs did for a living.

She stepped out from behind the bar and suddenly felt dizzy. She couldn't understand why. She took a look at her glass and found she had actually had more of her drink by now than she had realized. She figured it would pass soon though and grabbed hold of the edge of the bar to steady herself a bit until it went away. The trouble was it didn't, on the contrary, it got worse and she felt her head begin to spin. She spotted Marcus and Oscar over on one of the couches in a corner at the far end of the room. She slowly staggered over there and collapsed down next to them and tried to speak. She couldn't get her voice loud enough to be heard over the loud, noisy music though and when she looked up she saw that they had seated themselves right below one of the stereo loudspeakers. She tried making contact with the boys but they seemed to ignore her for some reason, even though she was almost lying on the couch, having trouble staying on it, they seemed more interested in their conversation than in checking on what was wrong with her. She felt herself starting to panic. What if she fell asleep here or passed out and something happened to her? She would have no control of her actions or anyone else's actions towards her. She wouldn't even be able to cry for help. And no one at NCIS knew where she was. Oh, if she had only stayed with Ziva. She closed her eyes even though she was afraid to but she needed the world to stop spinning. The last thing she heard before her world went black was the door getting kicked in and someone screaming at the top of their lungs to be heard over the music, "NCIS! Everyone stay where you are!"

**To be continued**


	5. Anger and Guilt

_Title: Visiting Family_

_Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm only borrowing them for the story and I don't make any money from writing this._

_A/N: Sorry it has once again taken me a long time to update but I've had some trouble motivating myself so I've taken it in small steps, writing a bit now and then when I've felt like it. Please let me know what you think of the result._

_By the way, this story is a result of me missing more discipline stories and regular stories that includes Ziva ( I think she is a great character who should be included more often in fanfiction and on the show). I also think Gibbs has always been so great with kids on the show and that it's a shame we don't get to see him raise a child of his own so I wanted to have him spend time with his niece in this story and see how that works out._

_Please let me know if you think I'm staying true to the characters created for the show NCIS because that is one of my primary concerns while writing fanfiction. I don't want them to be very different from the way they are on the show._

* * *

Heidi slowly opened her eyes and looked around her. She wasn't sure where she was. At first it was as if a bright light surrounded her and she couldn't see much of her surroundings what so ever. Her head hurt and she felt as if she was going to be sick. She wished it had been just a feeling because right then she leaned to the side and threw up right on the floor. She coughed a little and tried spitting to get rid of the awful taste in her mouth. Finally the bright light seemed to go away and she could see everything around her. She was in the director's office on the second floor in the NCIS building. She ran her hand across the surface of what she was laying on. Then she slowly tilted her head downwards and saw that she had been sleeping on the couch in the Director's office with a blanket covering her.

Suddenly the door opened and Ducky entered. When he saw that she was awake he turned back and called for Gibbs who was next door, talking to the Director. "Jethro, she's awake!" he called out and hurried inside to her side. "Oh, and I think there has been an accident." He stated when he noticed the mess on the floor next to the couch. Gibbs entered, looking concernedly at his niece and Ducky turned around again and headed towards the door. "I'll get a mop and a bucket to clean it up. There is a glass of water on the table next to her, Jethro. Make sure she drinks it all." He said and exited the room.

Gibbs sat down on the couch next to Heidi who did her best to avoid his eyes. Instead she focused on the painting on the wall above her. Gibbs gave it a minute but when she still refused to face him he touched her cheek and turned her head towards him. "Hi." He said and smiled at her.

"Hi." She said and lowered her eyes again.

"Are you okay?"

She coughed again and tried reaching for the glass on the table. "Yeah, but I feel sick to my stomach and my mouth feels dry." She stopped for a second and felt her forehead. "And my head hurts." She stated.

Gibbs nodded and handed her the glass so she wouldn't have to reach so far. He had stopped smiling and was now looking very serious as he spoke. "Are you aware that someone drugged you in that place a couple of hours ago?" he asked.

She shook her head no. "I felt something was wrong right before everything went black. I couldn't walk straight and I could hardly speak and I felt dizzy. You mean someone slipped me something in my…uh?"

Gibbs frowned. "In your what, young lady?" he asked sternly.

"In my um…drink." She said slowly, looking away again.

Gibbs sucked in a breath and then slowly exhaled, trying not to lose his temper and yell at the girl in her current state. "You were drinking alcohol? How much? And why?" he shook his head and stood up. "You know what, never mind why. I have too many things to ask you why on earth you did so that can actually wait." He said and then looked at his niece who was looking very small where she was lying.

"Have you called mom and dad?" she asked in a small voice, hoping for a no.

"No, not yet. I will though. AFTER we deal with the consequences of your actions today. You made so many mistakes that a professor in math would have problems counting them all."

"Uncle Gibbs, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…" she trailed off, feeling how stupid her apology sounded now.

"It's good that you're sorry for what you did, however that does not make it go away. You know I will eventually punish you. But not right now, we'll wait until you're feeling better and a bit more rested before taking care of that."

She didn't have to wonder what her punishment would be. She knew she would be given a spanking. There was nothing she hated more than being put across her uncle's knee. She usually tried to refuse but it never worked. She knew she deserved it but it just didn't matter, she still didn't want it.

"My parents…" she began.

"Don't even try it, Heidi. Your parents have always said that if you misbehave while in my care, I will hand out the punishment. It's the same this time."

The door opened and Ducky entered, carrying a bucket and a mop. He began to clean up after the mess she'd made.

"I'm sorry, Ducky." She said, referring to her mess on the floor.

"I know, my dear girl, I know." He said. "This was not your fault." He said pointing at the floor. "Your other decisions during the day however I would not refer to in the same way."

She nodded in understanding. How could this have happened? Things had gotten slightly out of hand during the day. Secretly she still blamed Ziva for it. It was just easier than facing that it was her own fault.

When Heidi had finished the glass of water and Ducky had finished cleaning the two older men left her alone in the director's office to rest. She knew the director would be in there working and making phone calls but she didn't care. She wouldn't be able to sleep now anyway no matter how tired she was.

She lay there, staring up into the ceiling, thinking. She thought about the two boys, Marcus and Oscar, and what had happened to them after NCIS burst through the door. She had asked Gibbs but he had refused to answer.

The door opened and the director walked into the room. She closed the door behind her and stood there looking at Heidi. "Are you okay?" she finally asked.

Heidi just nodded, not feeling like talking at the moment.

"That's good. I'm glad you weren't hurt." Jenny said and started walking over to her desk to sit down.

Heidi sat up quickly. "Do you know what happened?" she asked, a bit surprised herself that she had chosen to ask that question so suddenly. "Who drugged me? What happened after Gibbs and the others charged in?" she wanted to know and figured she could ask since Gibbs hadn't exactly told her she wasn't allowed to.

Jenny stopped and turned, looking at Heidi. Then she smiled and walked over to her and sat down next to her."Feeling curious today are we?" she asked. "Gibbs didn't tell you?"

"No, he didn't tell me anything."

"The two boys who you accompanied earlier."

Heidi nodded. She knew Jenny was talking about Marcus and Oscar.

"They are being interrogated as we speak by McGee. One of them slipped you something but we're not sure which one. They are accusing each other." She said.

"I can't believe this. How could anyone do a thing like that?!" Heidi exclaimed, upset.

"Oh, you'd be surprised what people are capable of, Heidi. That's why you have to be careful. It wasn't a very smart thing you did and you're lucky Gibbs and the team found you in time. I don't think those two were planning on just dancing with you after the drug had done its job." She said in a scolding tone.

"I know, I know…" she said rolling her eyes. One look at the director and she quickly added a "Ma'am." To stay on her good side. "Do you think Uncle Gibbs is going to be this mad for a very long time?" she asked afraid of the answer she would get.

Jenny smiled. "I think he needs some time to cool off. But yes right now he is very mad, he even let McGee be in charge of interrogating those two boys and that is a definite sign that he is not in a good mood if he didn't want to do that himself. "

"Oh God he's gonna kill me." Heidi whispered, voice cracking.

Jenny looked at her. She knew the girl had made some really bad choices today, and she had done that even after having been reminded to stay out of trouble. But she still felt sorry for her. Gibbs wasn't going to kill her but he was probably going to give her one of the worst spankings of her young life. She stroked the girl's hair for a while and she could detect some tears in her eyes. "Gibbs loves you, Heidi, and you scared him a lot today. In fact you scared us all. And I won't lie to you and tell you I don't think you deserve to be punished. But you know he won't be any harder on you than you can handle so everything will be fine. And once it's over it'll be over and you can both let it go."

"But I don't want him to spank me…or be mad at me." She sniffled quietly. She was never stoic pending a spanking, even though she wished she could be.

"I know." Jenny whispered and wrapped her arms around the girl, rocking her back and forth. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes until Jenny had to get back to work. Heidi finally fell asleep after that, feeling a bit more at ease after having spoken to Jenny.

* * *

Gibbs and the team were busy working on finding both Connell and the waitress who had promised to testify. They had been at it for over two hours now but with no luck. Ziva, Tony and McGee had Gibbs barking at them every fifteen minutes to find something but it did him no good because the both the witness and Connell seemed to have evaporated from the face of the earth.

"Two people don't just disappear! I want them both located now!" Gibbs yelled, standing over Tony's head.

"DiNozzo, search that waitress's apartment again. Try and find something that will tell us where she would have gone. Take McGee with you."

The two men looked at each other. "Are you two waiting for something?! Get going, NOW!" Gibbs yelled and the two of them got to their feet as fast as possible.

"Ziva, go through everything we have on Connell again. I want him in custody before the night is over and when we do have him everything will be in order."

Ziva started typing and then stopped. She opened her mouth to speak but wasn't sure exactly how to put her question so she closed it again and continued typing.

"Do you have a question, David?" Gibbs asked.

Ziva sighed. It was really annoying sometimes how observant their boss was. "Well yes. I was wondering how Heidi is doing." She asked.

"She's fine. She's resting up in the Director's office. The drug has worn off and Ducky is checking on her every now and then." He said.

"Can I see her?" she asked. She wanted to give the girl a piece of her mind after spending half the morning worried sick about her. However she also felt it was time for a truce between them.

"Sure. After I've dealt with her behavior this morning."

Ziva thought it made sense that Gibbs wanted that out of the way first. But she thought he would already have scolded her enough for her actions. She gave him a puzzled look.

"I'm going to spank her, Ziva." He clarified.

"Oh!" Ziva said surprised. She actually hadn't thought Gibbs would discipline Heidi that way. She had thought it seemed more probable that he would scold her or ground her or something like that. She imagined being on the other end of Gibbs' disciplining hand and shuddered. "Poor kid." She said quietly to herself.

"You don't think she deserves it after everything that happened this morning?" he said, not waiting for her answer he added. "Jen told me that Heidi didn't exactly seem to be submitting to your authority either. So she made several mistakes this morning."

"Like I told you, we didn't get along."

"It's not about you getting along, it's about her not being respectful towards you. You are the adult and she isn't. She also knows better than going off like she did today." He paused. "And going with those two boys was taking a big risk. I intend to make sure she remembers not to do it again."

Ziva nodded. It was fare and she knew it. But she had a feeling Heidi wasn't going to see it that way.

"I'd like a chance to settle things with her, Gibbs."

"And you will get your chance, later. Now get to work." He urged her and started walking towards the stairs murmuring. "I have my own difficult task to get to." He headed up the stairs to go see his little niece who was without a doubt waiting for him to return.

He opened the door to the director's office and saw Jenny sitting at her desk working. Heidi was standing beside her, watching over her shoulder. He understood that Jenny had given her permission otherwise Heidi wouldn't take such liberty.

When Heidi spotted Gibbs standing in the doorway she paled a bit. Jenny looked from Gibbs to Heidi and knew that it was time for her to depart. She had promised Gibbs to lend him her office since there were not many places in the building where one could find privacy.

Jenny got up and whispered good luck to Heidi before she headed for a late lunch. When passing Gibbs she said in a quiet a discrete tone "Don't be too hard on her, Jethro."

"I won't." he said and waited until she had closed the door behind her before approaching Heidi.

"We need to talk." He said. Talking wasn't his strong suite but at times like these when he had to he'd always rise to the occasion. He perched himself on the desk and Heidi seated herself in the Director's chair. Gibbs raised a brow at her move which made her rise and instead stand in front of him. "What you did today was unacceptable. It was very dangerous, and I think you realize that now that you know what almost happened to you. It was a close call, Heidi." Gibbs said.

Heidi nodded but said nothing. She didn't know what to say. It all seemed so stupid now afterwards even though it had seemed like a good idea at the time.

"So, why did you do it?" Gibbs asked.

"Do what?"

Gibbs sighed. "Why did you go with those two boys into an alley and then to a party in an old locked up storage room with people you didn't know? And why did you drink alcohol? You know you're not allowed to."

Heidi felt like simply throwing her hands in the air, because she just didn't have a good answer to his questions. Why had she made those decisions? Was it because she had been afraid of what the boys would do to her otherwise? No, she knew that wasn't the case. She could however tell Uncle Gibbs that. But that would be further lying and she was in enough trouble as it was.

When he didn't get an answer from his niece who was clearly struggling with what to feel he said "I think you might need some time to reflect upon that" he pointed to the corner behind Jenny's desk. "in the corner."

Heidi stood there with her mouth open. Wasn't it enough that she was going to get a spanking for what she had done? She had been waiting for her Uncle to come up there and deal with her like for ever and now he was going to make her wait even longer, dreading the inevitable in the corner. She stuck out her lower lip slightly and looked away, ignoring him.

"Heidi Wilhelmina Gibbs!! Now you go put your nose in that corner and stay there until I tell you otherwise." He pointed his index finger at the corner. It had been a while since he had punished her and he had almost forgotten how stubborn she was. She had always had a lot of attitude.

Heidi sighed but trudged over to the corner and stood facing it. This was so not fare. Sure she had made some mistakes, but she didn't deserve this much punishment.

Gibbs took a seat in Jenny's chair and picked up a newspaper lying on her desk and started to read it. He knew Heidi was furious with him right now. But he didn't care. This was the way she usually got when she was about to be punished. When she was little she had even tried to make a run for it a few times.

He let her stand in the corner for ten minutes before he finally put down the newspaper and got up. "All right, you can turn around now." He said and she turned. "Come here." He said and she slowly approached him. She stood in front of him and he asked her once again. "I hope you have an answer this time. Why did you decide to go with those two boys and why did you agree to drinking alcohol?"

Out of fear that he would put her in the corner again and perhaps double the time, she answered this time. "Because I was angry." She said.

"Angry at who?" Gibbs asked. "At me?"

"No. I was angry at Ziva for being such a…" she trailed off not daring to say the word she wanted.

"If I were you I would not finish that sentence, young lady." Gibbs warned her. He fixed her with his stare and when he saw that she took his advice he let it go. "I've understood you weren't' very happy with having to spend time with Ziva this morning. You made that very clear before I left. But I also made it very clear to you that Ziva was in charge and that you were to follow her orders and be respectful. Didn't I?`"

She nodded. "Now you and I have been through this before. You will respect your elders and not be disrespectful no matter what your personal opinion happens to be about the person in question. "

Gibbs was quiet. It was always difficult knowing what to say to Heidi to get through to her. She was strong willed and didn't like being told what to do. He didn't want to risk her making the same mistakes again regarding the drinking and running off with the wrong people and he also didn't want her turning out as some of the teens who mouthed off at their parents and all adults around them for saying something they didn't like to hear. His brother and his wife were doing a great job raising their daughter and she usually followed their rules and did was she was supposed to do. Gibbs knew there was no meanness in the girl, but she did have a temper, stubbornness and sometimes an attitude when she got angry. She somehow reminded him of himself, now and as a kid. But just as people had bothered to straighten him out when misbehaving he definitely wasn't going to let her get away with her behavior either. That wouldn't do her any good.

Gibbs perched himself on the desk again, trying to think of the best way to get through to her. He didn't want to spank her and risk that she didn't understand why she was being punished. So he continued. "Going with those two boys to the storage was wrong. You could have been hurt, killed or raped. It happens every day, Heidi. McGee interrogated them and they confessed to being out looking for a girl to bring there and have their way with. When you arrived they realized they no longer thought you'd agree to it willingly so they decided to slip something in your drink"

Heidi's eyes showed both anger and fear. They had actually been out looking for someone like her, and she had fallen for their stupid idiotic plot. How could she have been so stupid?

"Which brings me to your choice to drink alcohol. You accepted that drink which they had drugged. If you hadn't made the decision to drink then you at least would have been able to put up a fight to defend yourself if they had tried attacking you. " Gibbs was waiting for some sort of confirmation that Heidi was listening to him but she just stared past him into thin air. He was getting tired of this charade with her. "So, basically, drinking alcohol and going off with boys who you don't even know and who also happens to be older than you, because you are mad at someone, is a BAD idea and a lousy excuse to disobey me."He crouched down a little to try to look into her eyes to see if she had gotten the message. "Do you have something to say for yourself?"

She finally looked at him but with a bit more defiance than she had intended "How can it be my fault that some morons decided to drug me?! Yes I went with them and yes I had ONE drink and it was stupid and against your rules but it's not the end of the world. I'm sure you drink when you go out once in a while too." She bit back.

Gibbs bit his tongue to try and keep himself from just grabbing her and putting her across his knee right away in anger. "Heidi!" he exclaimed but then quickly returned to a calm tone of voice. "That is not my point. I am an adult with the right to drink if I choose to. You are a kid and you're not old enough to make that choice yet. And this proves it. You showed proof of very bad judgment today. And they're not just my rules; they are also your parents'."

Heidi heard him and knew she was getting herself in big trouble but now that she had already started to let out her frustration she couldn't stop herself. "And besides! All this was Ziva's fault. And yours too!!" she yelled so loud Gibbs thought the entire agency would hear her tantrum. "If you hadn't left me with her this never would have happened! I mean, who wouldn't want to go elsewhere with her looking over your shoulder. She's such a pain in the ass I'd almost rather be shot than be with her and…."she was gesticulating wildly while screaming and Gibbs figured this obviously wasn't going in the right direction. Finally he had had enough and grabbed the girl by the wrist and brought his face close to hers. He put a finger on top of her lips to silence her.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" he said slowly and in a warning tone silencing the girl instantly. She was panting from her little outbreak and tried to pull free but quickly realized it wasn't possible. Gibbs had a firm hold on her, not hurting her in any way but making it impossible for her to break free. "I will not allow you to blame Ziva for your bad behavior today. There is such a thing as taking responsibility for your actions and you are old enough to understand that now."

Heidi quieted down some. She lowered her head and felt the remorse returning to her now that she had gotten to do some yelling and gotten some of her anger out. It felt better to be angry than feeling ashamed and contrite. Although those feelings were certainly returning to her now. She felt horrible. She had disappointed Gibbs and he was right when he said that she was old enough to take responsibility for her actions, not like when she was little and would just scream and try to kick who ever made her angry.

Gibbs could see he had finally gotten through to her. He put a finger under the girl's chin and tilted her head up towards him. "When we are finished here I want you to apologize to Ziva."

"All right." Heidi whispered. She'd rather not apologize to the Agent but she didn't think this was the right time to ask her uncle if he'd consider letting her off the hook in that department. "I just got so mad at her because she treated me like a kid. I'm not ten years old anymore, Uncle Gibbs." She whined looking pleadingly at him.

"I know that. But honey, you need to give people a little more time before you place them under the category of bad and annoying people. So Ziva thought of you as a kid, so what? Then prove to her that you're not a kid and make her change her opinion of you. Instead of treating her badly and probably convincing her even more that she was right in the first place."

Heidi sighed. It sounded so easy when he said it. "I'll think about it." She said.

Her answer was very typical of his niece and it almost made Gibbs smile. He knew it was her way of somehow staying in control and he couldn't blame her. She didn't want to completely submit to authority. That also reminded him of himself.

Gibbs drew in a breath and then released it slowly, preparing himself for what he was about to do. He hated seeing her cry at his hand, but he knew that she had known he would spank her when she had decided to break the rules. She had made her decisions, and he had made his.

There was however one thing that Gibbs would never do to his niece. He had decided a long time ago to never ever use his belt on her. It was a decision he had made when she was little, after seeing her reaction to being spanked with his hand.

Gibbs walked over to the table and grabbed one of the straight back chairs and put it some distance away from the table. "All right, come here so we can get this over with." He said in a demanding tone. He always gave her the chance to come over by herself, but he knew that wasn't very likely to happen. She had never complied no matter what tone he had used. "Heidi" he said warningly but she didn't meet his stare this time. "Come over here right now or I will come and get you." He said clarifying what she already knew.

"Please, Uncle Gibbs." She said. "I…I didn't mean it. We don't have to do this. I'll apologize to Ziva and I'll never go off by myself again. I won't drink alcohol until I'm like twenty five, I promise. Just please don't spank me." She begged him, hoping he would see how truly sorry she was and decide that this kind of punishment wasn't necessary. Sometimes it worked with her parents.

Gibbs grinned, "Sorry, honey, but you're not getting off that easy." He said. He took off his jacket and hung it over the back of another chair. Then he walked straight over to the girl and took her by the arm, leading her over to the lonely chair out by itself on the floor. He sat down and started to pull her face down over his knee when she offered resistance and tried refusing going into the dreaded position. "Please don't." she said with tears in her eyes, looking more frightened by the minute.

"You knew you could expect this punishment when you misbehaved and now we're here. There is nothing I can do to change that. But you might want to remember this the next time you feel like doing something you know you're not supposed to." He lectured her and then determinedly put her all the way down over his knee and trapped her there.

He raised his right hand and then brought it down in the centre of her bottom making her yelp. He delivered five hard smacks to her backside and felt her begin to squirm across his lap. He kept delivering smacks in a steady rhythm, feeling very sorry for his niece who was going to be one sorry little girl when he was through. The fact that she seemed to dread and hate being spanked more than any kid he had ever met made it even more difficult for him to spank her, but it didn't make him go any easier on her than he would have someone else.

Heidi felt her uncle's hand come down on her butt again and again and she wished she were anywhere else but where she was at the moment. She was so embarrassed. Embarrassed over being spanked and embarrassed over having made the mistakes she had made today. She wished she could just jump in a time machine and go back and redo it and do it better this time. But instead all she could do was lay there and accept being punished. She wasn't very stoic while being spanked and her resolve broke down quickly. She knew that was viewed as strange though, since she was usually such a little spitfire. That's what Gibbs had always called her since she was two years old, Spitfire.

The pain in her bottom was becoming worse by the second and she could no longer keep quiet. She usually couldn't keep quiet for a very long time but this time she had managed a bit longer than usual. But she couldn't any longer.

"Nooooo! Please!" Heidi sobbed and started to kick her legs. "Uncle Gibbs, please stop! I'm sorry!!" she yelled. But Gibbs didn't stop yet. He felt bad for her, but this was the way it always was with Heidi. She would let her temper get the best of her and act out before the punishment, and then once it started she would let her actual remorse resurface because she hated being punished by him and she wanted it to end. So in a way it wasn't real yet. He could hear in her voice that she didn't mean the words yet. She kept saying she'd never repeat her behavior but those words were not yet true. And he'd know when they were.

Heidi had completely lost all her anger, now all she felt was guilty and sorry. She knew she deserved this punishment but she still wanted it to end. She felt Gibbs reposition her because she had been bucking so much she was no longer in a good position for him to keep going. When she felt him loosen his hold on her she tried to push herself up into a standing position but immediately lost the battle when Gibbs felt her efforts. She felt herself being lifted a little further up on his lap and she felt his hold on her tighten. She cringed when she heard the words. "No no, you're not going anywhere, young lady." She continued to let her tears fall and sob as his hand fell down on her jean clad bottom. She had forgotten how much it hurt and made a mental note to never forget again.

Finally Gibbs stopped and lifted her to her feet. She had thought he'd continue even longer now that she had tried to stand up but she thanked her lucky star that he had obviously decided to go a bit easy on her after all. She did find it strange that he didn't let her stay over his knee, crying and regaining control of her emotions before standing her back up, but she decided not to ask him why. All that was important was that it was over. She sobbed and tried blinking away the tears in her eyes while standing there. Her eyes went wide when she suddenly felt Gibbs yank her jeans down with one quick move. She was so surprised that she didn't even have time to react. She just couldn't believe he was going to give it to her without the protection of her jeans. It hurt so bad even with them on and he only ever pulled them down if she had done something really really bad.

Gibbs grabbed her upper arm again and started pulling her over his knee for a second time that day. She grabbed his hand with her free one and tried prying his fingers from her arm. "Uncle Gibbs, please don't!" she sobbed. Gibbs only continued pulling her down, not roughly but firmly and determinedly. When she was over his knee again he brought his hand down again and Heidi immediately started kicking her legs and had soon kicked her jeans all the way to the floor.

"Don't you ever pull another stunt like the one you pulled today, Heidi. I will not tolerate you being rude to people or putting yourself in danger the way you did today." He said while he continued spanking her.

"I…I…w…won't! I…I'm so…sorr…sorry!" she yelled through her tears.

"I love you and I couldn't stand anything happening to you. If I ever hear you've gone off on your own with people you don't know then I will repeat this lesson to you. But if I have to repeat it I will make this seem like a walk in the park to you. Do you understand me?" he asked in a stern Marine Gunny like tone.

Heidi nodded her head quickly. "Yes, yes I d…d…do. I wi…ll never do i…t…it again, Uncle Gibbs."

Gibbs knew that the words now meant something. He quickly delivered six hard smacks so her sit spot and then rested his hand on her back. He sat there and listened to his small niece crying. Knowing he was the one who had caused her to cry pained him a lot. But he didn't regret punishing her. She had now let out all her anger and he felt sure that she'd never make the same mistakes again. Other mistakes, sure, but at least not the same one. He stroked her hair and cheek and waited for her to calm down enough so that she could stand, since he didn't think sitting would be an option for her for a couple of days. At least not comfortably.

When she finally felt ready to stand she pushed herself up and her hands went to her poor bottom right away in an attempt to gently rub the sting away. It didn't do much good though. She then slowly stepped into her jeans and pulled them back up over her aching bottom. She looked up at Gibbs and said. "I really am sorry, Uncle Gibbs."

He opened his arms and she fell into his embrace and let the last of her tears fall right onto his shirt, staining it. Gibbs glanced down at his chest and smiled. "I know you are. It's over now."

**To be continued**


	6. An apology and a peace offering

Title: Visiting Family

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on "NCIS" I'm only borrowing them for the story.

**Author's notes: So chapter six is up and as usual I'm sorry for taking so long to write it. I'm going abroad soon to study so I'm preparing for the trip at the moment. But I'll have time to write from there as well so I'll keep the chapters coming. Thank you for all your kind reviews and for your patience.**

* * *

Heidi was standing looking out the window in the Director's office. Gibbs was leaning against the wall next to the window, glancing at his niece. Her tears had dried and he was definitely looking at a more remorseful and humble girl now than this morning. The humble part was probably only temporary though he thought to himself with a half grin.

"How did you find me?" Heidi finally asked.

"It wasn't that hard since you hadn't gone too far. Ziva knew where the two of you had been Wien you wandered off and we went back there and started asking people if they had seen a girl matching your description. We followed your trace and when we got close enough we could actually hear that music that was playing." Gibbs frowned. "It sounded like something Abby would listen to."

"I'm glad you found me. I'm never going to a place like that again." Heidi frowned.

"I certainly hope not." Gibbs said and tapped her bottom lightly to remind her of what would happen if she did. The girl winced and Gibbs nodded, knowing he had done a proper job on her backside.

"What will happen to Oscar and Marcus?"

"I should strangle them both." was Gibbs' response.

"Did you find out which one of them drugged me?"

"Yup."

"And?"

"They were both in on it. They were searching for a girl to bring to that place. The blonde smug looking boy, Marcus Macoy, was the one who actually slipped you the drug but they both made the decision together."

Heidi could see them both in her mind and felt like punching them both in the nose for what they had done and what they had tried to do to her. Then again she hadn't seen what shape they were in after the interrogation.

"What will happen to them?" she asked. "I mean, this isn't exactly a matter for NCIS, is it?"

Gibbs frowned. He knew this wasn't his case and that he would without a doubt have to let it go and hand it over to the Police. But a part of him wished he could claim jurisdiction on this one.

"Since they were both a part of it, even though Marcus Mcoy was the one who slipped you the drug, they will both be held responsible and will be turned over to the Police and their parents will be notified."

Heidi nodded at that and leaned back against the wall behind her. The moment her butt made contact with the wall she winced and quickly got back to a full standing position with both feet planted on the ground. "Ouch." she mumbled quietly.

Gibbs grinned at her little pout and gently kissed the top of her head. "Yeah, I know."

"Somehow I doubt that." Heidi pouted. She was no longer angry with Gibbs though.

"But I'll sure never repeat that mistake again." She said and leaned against her uncle's shoulder.

"Like I said, I hope not for you sake." He said in a somewhat threatening tone of voice. "If I ever find out that you have been as rude to anyone as you were to Ziva today, or that you have run off or even taken a zip of anything with alcohol, you will be dropping your pants and this time underpants as well before going over my knee."

After having spoken the words Gibbs almost regretted them, feeling they might have been a bit too harsh. Then he visualized what could have happened to Heidi and himself making that nightmare phone call to her parents telling them what had happened to their daughter. And right then he stopped doubting if he was doing the right thing and instead added. "Is that understood?"

Heidi's head had shot up at hearing Gibbs' promise to her. "Yes Sir. But please don't do that." She pleaded. Considering how much this spanking had hurt she didn't want to experience one without the protection of her underpants too.

"I won't do that. As long as you don't misbehave the way you did today or endanger yourself. Deal?"

They shook hands on that.

"Good. Now let's give Jenny her office back. I'm sure she has some boring reports to read. " he started moving towards the door. "I have a case to get back to." He opened the door for her. "And _you _have an apology to make."

Heidi groaned. "Yes, Sir."

* * *

Gibbs and Heidi walked down the stairs to the bullpen where Tony and McGee still hadn't returned. Ziva however was working hard behind her computer. She looked up and saw Gibbs approaching and got up.

"Gibbs. Tony and McGee called. Uhm…they didn't find anything new of interest. The waitress hasn't come back and everything is as it was the last time they were there."

Gibbs nodded. He seemed a bit more at ease now than before he had gone up to Heidi.

The girl followed closely behind him and seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Ziva.

"Gibbs, can I ask you a question?" Ziva said, careful not to get him back in a bad mood again. Since he didn't give her an answer full of sarcasm she assumed it would be okay. "If you want that waitress in custody why didn't you and Tony and McGee just arrest her when you pumped her for information last time? Why wait until now when she seems to have disappeared?"

Gibbs started rummaging around on his desk, looking for something. Finally he pulled out Heidi's homework and handed it to her. "You can sit at McGee's desk." He said, then turned to Ziva. "Because at that time I didn't think she would disappear like this. And I don't think she left voluntarily. That's why I want to find her again. We have all the information she had. She doesn't know any more that we can use to locate Connell."

Ziva didn't seem convinced though. "How can you be so sure?" she asked, not caring if she pissed him off because she really couldn't figure it out.

"My gut, Officer David. This girl disappeared right after she had spoken to us and told us everything she knew. She could see we weren't very focused on her so we probably weren't going to arrest her, so she had no reason to run, which means something must have happened to her afterwards."

"But she had packed her bags before she left, Gibbs."

"I believe someone did that just to make it look like she left voluntarily."

Ziva thought it over. Connell was a real dirtbag, she knew that. And he was leveled to do just about anything if he felt he was being betrayed. What if he had found out that she had spoken to NCIS? "You think Connell has done something to her." She stated and her statement was confirmed by Gibbs' quietness.

"Okay. I'm looking for people somehow connected to Connell right now. Anything that might lead us to where he would have gone."

Gibbs nodded. "That's good. I doubt he would be stupid enough to stay with a relative…but he might have let them know where he is. We need to pay them a visit."

"I agree. Oh, and Tony and McGee are on their way back here."

Gibbs made a strange sound deep in his throat to get Heidi's attention. She looked up from her homework that she had been keeping herself very busy with, in order to not have to acknowledge Ziva's presence too much. Gibbs nodded his head toward Ziva and Heidi made a questioning look. Gibbs got a look on his face that almost made his eyebrows look like they were grown together and Heidi quickly got to her feet. She slowly approached the female field agent and stood herself next to her chair with her hands clasped together in front of her.

Ziva finally looked up. "Yes?"

"I…I…" Heidi began. She could see the annoyed expression on the agent's face and knew she wasn't happy with her.

"You what?" Ziva asked sounding like she wanted to get back to work as fast as possible.

Gibbs watched the scene with a smirk on his face. He knew how difficult Heidi found it apologizing to Ziva. It made him remember the time she had been caught fighting with a friend as a child while he was visiting. The two girls had fought over an old broomstick that they had both insisted on playing witches with. But there had only been one broomstick and they hadn't wanted to share it. Finally her friend had struck the first blow and Heidi had struck back and they had kept going until the adults broke them apart. They were both told to apologize to one another and Heidi had been so convinced that it wasn't her fault. She had made the apology but with the same expression on her sweet face as the one she had right now. The expression of ´this is soooo not fair´.

Heidi took a deep breath and put all her pride away somewhere deep down inside some secret cave in her stomach. "I'm sorry I ran away earlier today. It was wrong of me and I should have stayed with you like Uncle Gibbs told me to." She said and wanted nothing but to run back to McGee's desk and bury her face in her hands.

Ziva was quiet a few seconds and then leaned forward in her chair. "It's good that you realize you did something wrong I guess. But I think we both know that's not all you did today." She said calmly.

"I also drank alcohol but that's none of your business!" Heidi said, upset at Ziva's invasion of her privacy at this delicate moment.

"Heidi! Watch your mouth, young lady, AND your temper." Gibbs barked from his desk.

Heidi realized she had once again let her temper take over and she regretted her tone and choice of words. "Sorry." She whispered softly and hung her head.

Ziva tapped her underneath her chin, making her look up."I didn't mean the alcohol. I'm sure Gibbs straightened that out already, and like you said, it's none of my business." Ziva noticed the girl's surprised look at her admission. "I was referring to you being disrespectful towards me almost the entire day."

Heidi nodded. "It won't happen again." She said.

Ziva was more than a little surprised herself at the girl's change of attitude. Gibbs must have done a good job on her behind. The poor girl must indeed be very sore right now, she thought and decided to cut her some slack. "I accept your apology." She said and watched as the girl quickly scurried back to McGee's desk to hide behind her math book.

Ziva's computer made a beeping sound to to let her know she had received an email. "Gibbs! I just received something that might be interesting." She paused to read on her screen.

Gibbs sighed. "Well, Ziva? Is it interesting or not?" he asked impatiently.

"It's a woman who used to work for Collins who's in protected custody."

"Why is she is protected custody?"

"She testified against him seven years ago. For rape and forced prostitution. He walked though. She's still hiding."

"And this is interesting to us because….?" He asked with a raised brow.

"Because she has somehow heard NCIS has conducted an investigation on the dead Petty Officer. She just emailed me, Gibbs. She wants to talk to us."

"All right. Tell her to come in and talk to us then." He urged her. Anything that even resembled a lead was great right now, he thought.

"I don't think that's going to work, Gibbs. She wrote in her email that she has heard of your reputation and that she trusts you. However, she'll only speak to you and she wants you to come to her."

Gibbs glanced at his niece who was keeping herself busy with her homework. Or at least trying to make it look like she was. He didn't want to leave her right now so soon after the events during the day and he was angry at the situation that was forcing him to work instead of spending time with her. He had counted on this case being over by now and him going home tonight to kick back with Heidi. But as long as they were in the middle of this case he knew that wasn't going to happen.

"Where is she?"

"24 th New West Street, second floor. It says Marie Evansworth on the door." Ziva read from the email she had just received.

Heidi was listening to every word spoken, though trying to look as busy as possible with her math homework. She didn't want to give Uncle Gibbs an excuse to yell at her again. Though he couldn't exactly call this eavesdropping since she was sitting in the same room only a few feet away from both him and Ziva.

"You can stop drawing in your math book now, Heidi." She heard him say and she froze in the middle of drawing a kitten and looked up at him and smiled sweetly.

"How do you know I was…?" she began

"Because I know you." He cut her off. "Never mind that now." He said and walked over to where she was sitting. "Honey, I'm sorry but I have to go out again for a while. I need to go talk to this woman who I know you just heard us talking about."

Heidi nodded. She understood that he had to go and she wasn't about to start a big argument over that. "I know. It's okay. "

"So, you're okay with me leaving you again for a little while?" he asked, knowing he didn't really have a choice any way but felt he wanted to ask her.

"I guess. But why can't I go with you? You're just gonna talk to a woman right? It's safe. It can't be dangerous or anything."

"I won't take you with me when I go out into the field, Heidi. These safe situations have a way of becoming unsafe when you least expect it and besides…your mom and dad wouldn't like it."

"It's not like I'm not in trouble with them anyway after today." She muttered.

"That's true. But if I took you with me, you wouldn't be the one in trouble – I would be the one in trouble. And you don't want to get me in trouble, do you?" he asked, almost pleadingly. Ziva had never really seen Gibbs look cute before, but now he was pretty close to it actually. It was a bit scary.

"Oh ookay." Heidi said with a grin at her uncle's expression.

"Good girl." He said and patted her cheek gently. "You keep doing your homework." he fixed her with a stare "Or I should say START doing your homework."

"Uncle Gibbs."

Gibbs turned around again. "Yes?"

"I'm kind of hungry."

Gibbs wiped some sweat from his forehead and sighed at his own stupidity. How could he have forgotten to get Heidi lunch? He always remembered to, but not this time. "I'm sorry. Of course you are…uhm…I'll fix that." He frenetically tried to think of a way to fix it but to no avail. He would need to take her out of the building to a restaurant or a fast food place or something since the cafeteria was closed today. He knew she loved hamburgers but rarely got to eat them at home because her parents hated them. "What would you like?"

"Well, you always get me a hamburger at some point during my visit and right now

I'm really hungry so…" she trailed off leaving it obvious what she wanted.

Gibbs would have liked nothing but to meet her request but knew it couldn't be met at the moment.

That was when Ziva stepped in. "Gibbs, I don't really have an assignment until you get back so if you'd like I could help you out."

Both Heidi and Gibbs stared at her, trying to figure out if she was serious or not.

"I thought maybe we could start again and get on the right road this time." Ziva said to Heidi.

"I think the expression you're searching for is `on the right track´, and I think that sounds like a good suggestions. What do you think Heidi?" Gibbs asked.

Heidi thought about it for a moment. She felt as if she was looking at Ziva with different eyes now. Before the agent had seemed completely uninterested in socializing with her but now she actually wanted to fix their little rough start. Heidi appreciated that. And Ziva hadn't given her a particularly hard time when she apologized either.

"I guess it's ok." she said peering suspiciously at Ziva for a moment.

Ziva looked at Gibbs. "Good. There is a fast food restaurant five minutes drive away from the Navy yard. We'll go there."

Gibbs stepped over to Heidi and put a firm hand on her shoulder. "Just you remember to behave this time, all right?"

She nodded in agreement, actually meaning it this time. Gibbs kissed her forehead and then walked over to his desk, opened his desk drawer and pulled out his gun and strapped it on. "I'll see you soon." he said and smiled at his niece and then left to catch the elevator down to the garage.

* * *

After having called Abby to let her know they were heading out for lunch Ziva and Heidi were standing in the elevator on their way down to the garage. They were both standing in silence, watching the not so colorful walls.

Finally Heidi turned her head toward the former Mossad Officer and broke the silence by asking a question. "Why are you doing this?"

Ziva looked calmly at the girl next to her. "I guess I think Gibbs was a little hard on you and I feel slightly responsible for that. Like I said I thought this would be a good way to start over."

The elevator doors opened and they had reached the garage. They headed for Ziva's car and Heidi jumped in the passengers seat and strapped her seat belt on. Her head jerked backward when Ziva started the car and headed out of the garage. The girl silently wondered how this woman possibly could have gotten her drivers license since she worried she'd receive a whiplash injury every time Ziva's foot touched the breaks or the gas pedal.

They exited the Navy Yard and drove for five minutes straight to the fast food restaurant and parked the car in the parking lot. Ziva opened the car door and climbed out and stretched her arms towards the sky and yawned.

Heidi glanced at Ziva. "Tired?" she asked.

Ziva closed her mouth and grimaced in an attempt to stop yawning. "No…well actually yes. I recently returned from an under cover operation and also ran around in circles looking for some girl who went missing today." she said and added a smile so that Heidi would know she was making a joke, not scolding her furhter for the day's events.

They entered the restaurant and Heidi ordered a hamburger with extras of pretty much everything they had on it, and a big coke. Ziva looked at her order with confusion and some disgust. "I've never understood how people in this country can eat that stuff and find it good." she looked up and saw the guy behind the counter frown at her comment. "No offense."

"You mean you don't like hamburgers?!" Heidi asked.

"Well, actually, I've never tried one. But they don't look very tasty to me." she said and poked Heidi's burger with her index finger and then pulled it back quickly as if the burger would jump up and attack her.

"You've never tried one?!" Heidi was astonished. Everyone knew how a burger tasted. "You have to try one now then!" she said but Ziva didn't look convinced.

"Come on, let me order one for you. I'll pick out a good one, I promise."

The people in line behind them were starting to make irritated little noises and the guy behind the counter started to look a little stressed. "Look lady, if you're gonna order then do so now. I've got customers waiting who actually _want _our food." he said sounding slightly annoyed.

Ziva pursed her lips together and counted to ten. Rude personnel was on top of her list of annoying people to come across. She looked at Heidi's burger and then at the excited and urging face of the girl in her company. Oh well, When in Rome, she thought. "Fine go ahead and order me one of those things too. But it had better not be aggressive or try to resist or I'll be forced to pull out my gun." she patted her waist and glanced at the boy behind the counter who's face suddenly turned a bit pale.

**To be continued**


	7. Duck and run

**Title: Visiting Family**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

Gibbs knocked on the door to the apartment he had been asked to come by by the woman who supposedly was in the witness protection program. He was pondering why he was in such a bad mood but then realized that it wasn't that strange since he hadn't had a cop of coffee since this morning. The day had been pretty damn hectic and he hadn't had time to go to his usual place and buy his daily, and for that matter even nighty, fix.

When no one answered the door he knocked again, this time with a little more force. "Hello?! Marie Evansworth?!" he called out with his face closer to the door. He knew that most likely wasn't her real name but Ziva hadn't told him another name besides the one on the door so he assumed she hadn't written it in the email.

He crouched down to take a look at the lock. He certainly hadn't come all the way across town only to find a locked door and have to go back again empty handed. To his surprise he found the door wasn't locked so he turned the doorknob and took out his gun and slowly pushed the door open. He saw an empty hallway and no person in sight and kept walking, slowly towards what he guessed was the living room. "Marie Evansworth? This is special Agent Gibbs, NCIS."

No answer, only a soft sobbing could be heard. Gibbs continued forward and quickened his pace.

When he entered the living room he put his gun away at the sight of a young woman in her mid twenties with blonde hair and averaged height, wearing jeans and a black tank top. She was sitting on the couch crying and her make up was smeared all over her face. When she saw Gibbs she hid her face in her hands and cried even harder.

Gibbs approached her "Hey, hey, miss. Calm down." It didn't work though and Gibbs sat down next to the woman on the couch. He took hold of her hands and gently pulled them away from her face so that she looked at him. "Are you all right? Did someone hurt you?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No, Sir. Not recently anyway." she said as she scanned him up and down. "He said you'd come."

Gibbs frowned and gazed around the room for a second person but couldn't see anyone. "Who? You're not the one who emailed my agent, Ziva David?" he had had a bad feeling about this ever since he left the office to meet with this woman and he had a feeling his bad hunch was about to become reality.

"Well, my fingers did the typing but I'm not the one who decided what to type." she said, confusing him even more.

"What?" Gibbs was getting slightly annoyed. "Look, miss Evansworth, you're going to have to say something that makes sense to me because so far you haven't' said a single word that does."

"My name isn't Marie Evansworth, Agent Gibbs. I'm Elena Carter."

"You say it as if you expect me to know your name from somewhere. Do you?" he asked, eager to get to the bottom if this and find out what was going on.

Elena wiped the tears from her face and took a deep breath. "Well, perhaps not you. But Ziva David knows it. We've met."

"I'm a waitress at Collins bar and restaurant down town. I understand you've been looking for me."

Finally the pieces all fell together for Gibbs. "YOU are the waitress who claimed she wanted to testify against that scumbag but then gave up my agent's identity to him instead?!" he didn't exactly scream it but he did give her at least half of a Gibbs stare which was enough to get her tear canals working again. "Stop that crying right now and answer my questions, miss Carter. I'm not going to hurt you so you have nothing to fear right at the moment."

She looked up at Gibbs sitting next to her again and made an attempt to pull herself together. Gibbs could see she was young and that her fear was real and he had no intention of frightening her more. But he wasn't about to act as a nurse maid either since she wasn't completely innocent. Not that he would have acted that way with her even is she had been completely innocent. But right now his main focus was to find out why she had run from them and then hid in an apartment under a false name and lured him to come see her alone. Knowing he was without backup he was also keen on leaving the apartment with the woman as soon as possible. Preferably before he was ambushed by scumbags or perhaps even Collins himself.

"Why did you ask me to come here? And who was it that forced you to write that email? Collins?"

She nodded and wiped at her face with the back of her hand. "Yes. After I told Ziva I would testify I went to him. I thought he would pay me a great sum of money if I told him he had had an under cover agent posing in his bar for weeks. I also knew he was fond of her, and that meant he would value the information highly since she had betrayed his trust." the look on Gibbs face seemed to scare her but this time she didn't back down. She continued. "I know what it sounds like but I really thought Ziva would be out of his reach being a cop and all. I didn't think I'd be putting her in danger telling him what I knew. I didn't know I swear..." she said and her eyes began to water again.

"Didn't know what?" Gibbs asked, sharply, thinking there was more to her story than she was confessing out loud right now. And he needed and wanted to know.

"Collins was angry with me for having cooperated with her at all instead of just coming to him and delivering the information about her right away. He thought I was trying to protect her and maybe even set him up. So he grabbed me and brought me here to a rented apartment he uses sometimes. Earlier he told me to write that email and tell you to come here to get you out of the way. He also had people at my apartment keeping an eye out and notifying him when your people showed up to look for me. Then he'd know they were busy as well. That leaves only one Agent of yours left alone and it is now six o'clock in the afternoon. He figured even NCIS agents went home at some point and that it would probably be around this hour."

Gibbs heart started beating faster in his chest, pretty much the same way it used to when he was about to take out an enemy with his sniper rifle back in the Marine Corps. "You mean he's targeting Ziva?!"

"He isn't planning on killing her, Agent Gibbs. He said he has got worse plans for her than that."

Gibbs rose to his feet and quickly pulled the girl up in one quick move and then, pulling her along by her right arm, started running out of the apartment and down the stairs in the apartment building. When they emerged from the front door he ducked as two bullets came towards him and they retreated back into the apartment building again. The shooters had been inside a car parked across the street and they were now in pursuit. That car hadn't been there when he entered the building a few minutes ago.

Gibbs locked the door from the inside, hoping to buy them at least a few more seconds of time to get away. He grabbed the girl by both shoulders and brought her closer to him. "Is there any other way out of here?!" he listened to the echo of his own voice disappear in the entrance and then he spotted the stairs leading to something that looked like the basement. "What's down there?! Answer me quickly so we can get out of here in one piece!"

Elena snapped out of her chocked state and stuttered "Th...there is a laundry..." she swallowed hard and took a breath to steady her voice. "A laundry room. And to the left of it there is an emergency exit leading out into the back yard."

Gibbs grabbed hold of her arm again and they ran down the stairs, into the basement and headed straight towards the exit. He wanted to avoid opening fire inside the building because of the risk of someone exiting their apartment and getting caught in the crossfire. Not to mention the need to get to Ziva as fast as possible.

As they ran Gibbs quickly went through the day's events in his head. He had gone to arrest a man he had waited to arrest for two whole weeks, only to find out he had disappeared and was nowhere to be found. His niece had been a total brat to one of his Field Agents and then decided it would be a good idea to go off on her own and head to a party where she had been drugged and almost raped by a couple of lowlifes. Their only witness on the case they were working on had turned on them and given up his under cover agent's identity to the scumbag they were after in the first place and then the witness too had disappeared. And now he was trying to save her life and his own while being shot at by two senseless, boneheaded lackeys with bad aim. There was only one way to sum it up.

"God I need coffee."

To be continued

AN: So what do you think of the story so far?


	8. Abducted

**Title: Visiting Family**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters on NCIS, I'm just borrowing them for the story.**

**A/N: _Here is chapter eight of this story. Right now I have switched environment from my comfortable and safe home to live abroad until Christmas and the way it looks right now I will have some more time to write from here. So as long as I don't get writer's block you can expect updates on the story more frequently for a while. _**

_Ziva and Heidi were seated_ at a table by a large window at the fast food restaurant. They had their food in front of them, even if Ziva didn't want to refer to it as food, and Heidi was eating away as if it was the only food she would get in months. Ziva on the other hand was staring suspiciously at her food, not sure if she wanted to sink her teeth into the hamburger in front of her. It might after all have the power to turn her into Tony, which was a frightening thought.

"Come on, aren't you going to taste it?" asked Heidi.

Ziva hesitated. She had after all promised. She lifted the burger to her mouth and took a bite from it. She wrinkled her nose at first, expecting it to be really bad. Then her face lit up a bit as she chewed. "Hmm...not bad." she mumbled as she chewed and nodded to show that she approved.

"You like it?"

Ziva was in a way ashamed to admit it but she actually found the burger tasty. "It's okay. Not the best meal I have ever had but not exactly disgusting either."

Heidi looked at her with eyebrows raised. Ziva noticed the expression of disbelief on the girl's face and tried to ignore it but when she looked up again, it was still there. "Oh okay! I really like it! It's great! I admit it."

"I knew it!" Heidi said in triumph and grinned. "Why didn't you just admit it in the first place?"

Ziva shrugged. "I usually don't admit defeat."

They both laughed and continued their meal, washing the burgers down with Coke. "You are not from America, right?" Heidi asked, starting to get curious about this woman in front of her. Uncle Gibbs hadn't told her anything about Ziva yet and Heidi could feel she was starting to really warm up to her. She was actually an interesting person and not too bad to hang around either.

"That is correct. I'm from Israel."

"Why did you come here?"

Ziva smiled at that question. She thought it was sweet that Heidi wanted to know more about her, but she didn't think it would be a good idea to tell her everything about her past. Including the reason she had first come to the U.S.

"That is a long story. But I can tell you the reason I didn't go back, and that was because I wanted to work for your Uncle Gibbs and be on his team. A team I am now part of."

"That's nice. My Uncle Gibbs is the best." Heidi announced while taking a bite of her burger. "Do you speak any other languages besides English?" she asked with her mouth full.

"A few."

"I've always wanted to learn a second language fluently. But so far I've only studied Spanish at school and I haven't managed to learn much because I think it's so difficult." she said with a sad smile.

"It's not that difficult." Ziva assured her. "But you need to devote some time to learning the basics of the language you wish to learn. After that there are many ways to easily expand your vocabulary."

"Yeah, that's the problem I guess. I'm stuck because I don't have the discipline to really learn the basics." she sighed and took a sip of her coke and a bite of one of her french fries.

"I'll help you if you want me to." Ziva offered, not completely sure she wouldn't regret it later. "Do you have homework in Spanish back at NCIS?"

Heidi nodded. "I was sick last week and I have a lot of catching up to do. My teacher said I didn't need to finish all of it during the holiday but Uncle Gibbs is probably going to make me do all of it tonight anyway, as punishment for what happened today." she said, resisting the urge to pout.

Ziva snickered "Perhaps. But maybe that will be a good thing. That way it will be done when you get back to school."

"Never try to lie about who you work for, Ziva. You even _sound_ like Uncle Gibbs." Heidi said with a slight smile curling her lips.

"I'll take that as a compliment...I think." Ziva glanced at her watch, they would need to get back to the office soon. They still had a few minutes though so there was no need to rush to the car just yet. "So, how come you call Gibbs Uncle _Gibbs. _I mean Gibbs is what we call him, I would have thought you would have called him Uncle Jethro." she said, thinking she might as well ask the question that had been lingering in her mind since she first heard Heidi call Gibbs Uncle Gibbs.

"Oh, I don't know. Mom and dad call him Jethro but I remember noticing already as a kid how people who were his friends and associates called him Gibbs, so I wanted to do the same. I probably thought it would make him see me as a friend and not only his niece. I guess I've always wanted to be seen as an equal to people I look up to." she admitted.

At hearing that Ziva went back in her mind to her days as a little girl on her father's lap. She was constantly seeking his attention and approval and she remembered feeling the same way Heidi described, wanting to be his equal and wondering if there was something wrong with that. "I know what you mean."

They sat in silence for a little while, both of them in thoughts of their own until Ziva shook her head slightly to get out of the mist. She glanced down at Heidi's plate and saw that it was now empty. She felt it was time for them to head for the car and drive back to the Navy yard.

They got up from the table and headed for the door that lead to the parking lot.

Heidi looked up at Ziva and said the words she had been meaning to speak since they arrived at the restaurant. "Thanks for bringing me here, Ziva." she said with sincerity.

Ziva smiled at the young girl walking next to her. "No problem." she said. She reached down into her pocket to grab her phone and call to check on the others and halted abruptly when she realized her pocket was empty. She quickly reached into her other pocket but there was nothing there accept an old gum wrapper. She then remembered taking out her phone as they sat down to eat and placing it on the table so she would be able to hear the signal over the loud voices of the other customers in the restaurant.

"Is something wrong?" asked Heidi who noticed the Agent's distressed face.

"I left my phone on the able." she spun around and called over her shoulder to the girl. "Stay here, I'll be right back."

Heidi did as she was told. She had no intention of running off again and she was glad Ziva seemed to trust her enough that she didn't make her go with her inside so she could keep a constant eye on her. That would have been understandable of course after this morning, but she was glad it wasn't an issue between them.

While she waited for Ziva Heidi kicked a pebble that hit the wall and bounced slightly back towards her before it hit the ground. She glanced around the place outside the restaurant. She was standing in the parking lot and there were about a dozen cars parked there. On the right side of the building was a playground with a couple of swings and a sandbox. She remembered playgrounds being so much bigger and so much more fun when she was a kid. Now they seemed kind of boring to her. How could she have spent hours in the playground at home without getting bored out of her skull only six years ago? Or perhaps they were still fun if she'd just go there and try it again. There were no kids on the playground and she glanced back at the entrance. Still no Ziva. She started walking towards the playground and headed for the swings. They were situated so that no one by the windows inside the restaurant could see her. She sat down on one of the two swings and started moving her legs back and forth, slowly at first and then picking up the pace. It felt kind of nice. She felt free up there in the air and a familiar feeling buried deep inside her was returning. Being on a swing had always felt adventurous to her as a child.

She dropped her feet down quickly and brought the swing to a quick stop when she spotted a gray van driving kind of fast towards her. The van stopped on the corner of the building and one man emerged from the front seat and two more from the back of the van. At first she thought it was probably just her imagination that they seemed focused on her. They could just be guys sent to repair something on the building or perhaps on the playground to make it safer. But when they started running towards her, looking pretty determined to get to her fast, that was when she knew.

She stood up and at first felt like she couldn't move but snapped out of it and started stumbling backwards. With eyes as big as saucers she scanned her surroundings for a way to escape but found that she was trapped. There was a high fence behind her and to her right a dead end and in front of her was the van. She opted climbing the fence was her best shot at the moment and started running towards it as fast as her shaking legs would carry her. She grabbed hold of the fence, ready to climb it, but the men were so quick and right behind her that she only had time to start to boost herself up before one of them caught hold of her right arm and put another arm around her waist and roughly threw her to the ground. She looked up at him with panicking eyes and saw that he wore a ski mask and so did the others. A second man grabbed hold of her and hoisted her up from the ground. He lifted her and tried to throw her over his broad shoulder but she managed to bite him in the arm. He cried out in pain because Heidi had focused all her fear and anger into that defensive bite so it had probably hurt a lot.

He dropped her to the ground and she tried to make a run for it but the first man grabbed her and put his arm around her throat. Then he started dragging her towards the van while she was kicking and trying to break free but to no avail. He was much too strong and she didn't have a chance. She felt panic rise inside her and real fear take over her body and mind.

"Ziva!!!!"

* * *

Ziva was standing at the counter trying not to loose her temper with the boy they had ordered their food from earlier. "So, are you going to tell me if someone has turned in a cell phone in the last five minutes?" she asked again for the third time.

The boy looked up and grinned at her. "Are you going to show me your gun?" he asked with a confident smirk as if he was sure the answer would be yes.

"No."

"Why do you carry it? You some kind of cop?" he kept asking, using his temporary power over her to his advantage.

Ziva sighed. She really wasn't in the mood for this. "Let me speak to your supervisor." she demanded, having had enough of the game this kid was playing with her. "NOW!" she said emphasizing the meaning of that word by slamming her hand down on the counter with a bang.

The boy threw his hands in the air and took a step back. "Okay! Okay! Fine!" he said finally giving in. "Here is your phone." he reached down behind the counter and pulled out her cell phone and handed it to her. Ziva glanced at her phone and noticed the dark display. It had been shut off. "You turned off my phone?!" she yelled.

"Yeah, so what?" he asked but after noticing the look on Ziva's face as she looked up at him, he quickly changed his tone. "Sorry. But I had to, it's my boss's rules for this place. If someone leaves a phone then the owner has to come back to retrieve it and we're supposed to turn it off, so it doesn't keep ringing all day in the mean time, disturbing the customers."

"As if anyone would be able to hear my phone ringing over all the noise in here anyway" Ziva muttered under her breath as she started to push the buttons on her phone to turn it back on. She never turned off her phone in case someone on the team called her, it didn't matter if it was day or night. She wanted to be available at all times in case one of them needed her. Not to mention the fact that Gibbs would probably kill her if he tried to reach her and all he got was an answering machine telling him she couldn't take the call.

She thought it would be a good idea to call Gibbs and let him know they would be a little late, but for some reason the display was still black and the phone wouldn't start. She felt the back of it and noticed the sticky mess that she was guessing was some sort of soda on it. "You spilled something on my phone?!" she yelled, slamming the phone down on the counter in front of her. The boy didn't answer her question because he was too busy staring out the window on the other side of the room.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" he asked in confusion.

Ziva turned and looked out the same window. She saw a gray van parked outside and noticed a man wearing black clothes and a ski mask run around to the back of the van and fling the doors open. What ever it was that was going on it definitely didn't look good. She knew she should call for back up but now her damn phone didn't work. She decided that she would take a look outside to see if she could handle the situation by herself since there didn't seem to be too many of them. She put her phone in her pocket and took a jump over the counter, landing on the other side next to the boy who just stared at her in surprise. She then ran through the doors leading to the kitchen and as she burst through, almost knocking a chef to the ground, she spotted what she was searching for, the exit door leading to the back of the building. She ran to it, ignoring all the yells and protests aimed at her from the staff. When she reached the door she turned towards the restaurant staff and yelled in a commanding voice "Everybody stay inside, and make sure your guests do as well!"

She then slowly took out her gun and grabbed the door handle. She was just going to take a look outside at what was going on. She slowly opened the door and then exited and pointed her weapon at the van. The door closed behind her and she advanced toward the van. She was facing the front of the van and the man she had seen from inside the restaurant was on the back of it. She stopped dead in her tracks when she noticed the driver in the driver's seat and knew she had been made. He was looking straight at her and he wasn't wearing a ski mask. Their eyes met and he seemed to recognize her which Ziva found odd since she had never seen him before. She took a few quick strides towards them to get close enough to be able to fire. The driver opened the door and jumped out of the van, gun pointed at her. She focused her aim at him and seeing no point in staying quiet anymore she yelled " NCIS! Do not move!"

The man smiled at her and kept his weapon pointed at her. That was when she noticed two other masked men approaching from the direction of the playground next to them. One of them had a scared looking girl by the arm. As she realized they had Heidi she knew that the situation had suddenly changed from bad to worse.

"Let her go!"

The man who was marching Heidi toward the van spoke to her in a calm but determined voice. "Drop your weapon right now or I kill the girl."

Ziva didn't move. If she dropped her weapon she had no control over what happened to either of them. But if she held on to it she was taking an even greater risk that she couldn't afford taking. There was something in the way he was handling Heidi that made Ziva sure he wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

She made her decision and put her left hand in the air and using her right hand she put down her weapon in front of her on the ground.

"Kick it!" the man ordered and Ziva kicked her gun away and placed both hands on her head.

The man holding Heidi shoved her over to the man next to him and started running toward Ziva, picking up her weapon on his way and placing it in his pocket. When he reached her he grabbed hold of her arm and without any warning he punched her in the face. Ziva was both surprised and furious. Why had he hit her? He had no reason to since she was cooperating and wasn't acting provokingly towards him. It was reflex, pure reflex when she raised her free arm and struck him back. Her blow landed on his chin and it must have hurt, but the man didn't even take a step backwards. In retrospect after having struck him, she realized it was almost as if he wanted to provoke her. But why?

The driver rushed over to give the man a hand with the pissed off Ziva. As he took his last few steps before reaching her he reminded her of why she shouldn't resist. "You resist in any way and it's that little girl over there that pays for it." he said, carefully watching her eyes flaring in rage. Ziva backed down at hearing that and the driver grabbed her arms and spun her around facing the man who had just struck her. She felt her wrists being provided with handcuffs that were so tight they almost cut off her circulation and then the two men began marching her over to the van. Ziva stood next to Heidi who was still being kept in place by one of the masked men. The girl looked at Ziva who had a trickle of blood coming from her mouth. "Ziva, what's going on?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"I don't know. Just keep calm." the Agent answered. She wanted to see the people behind those masks. She wanted to know who they were. The only one who wasn't wearing a mask was the driver and she didn't recognize him. It was frustrating and confusing. Why would they go after her? She gasped as it suddenly came to her. The only person who would go after her, at the moment at least, was Freddy Collins. She turned her gaze back to the man who had struck her face a minute earlier. Their eyes met and he chuckled from behind his dark mask. Realizing she had figured out who he was he removed his mask and ran a hand through his brown hair.

"Hello Ziva David. Or should I perhaps call you Rosalita Jenkins?" he took a step closer to her so they were face to face with not more than an inch between them. "Normally I don't do these sort of things myself, but I wanted to be here in person this time."

"For what?" Ziva sput out between breaths. She was trying to stay calm but inside her anger was boiling.

Collins pointed at the van with the back doors open. "You see this van here?" he stepped back and tapped the side of the van and then stepped back to his place in front of her again. "In about thirty seconds you and the little girl here will be put in the back of it and transported quite far from here by these men." he gestured to the two masked men and the driver. "And I..." he pointed a finger at himself "am going to enjoy watching it happen from my car parked over there in the parking lot. After I have watched it happen I'm going to drive away and keep driving until I reach a ship that will take me to the home of a dear friend of mine. A friend I have never spoken to anyone about so there will be no finding me after this. I will have a new life." his eyes suddenly grew darker than she'd thought possible. "Since YOU destroyed the one I had." he reached into his coat and all of a sudden he had a knife in his hand. He put it against Ziva's cheek and she watched his eyes grow wide with rage. Heidi struggled against her captor and screamed at the top of her lungs for Collins not to hurt Ziva. Ziva was certain he was going to at least cut her. She couldn't think of a reason why he wouldn't being the person he was and having her in front of him like this after everything that had happened. She felt the razor sharp blade against her skin and wondered how long he was going to make her fear it before he slashed her. Then to her surprise and relief he took the knife away from her face. "No." he said, panting. "I won't ruin your face permanently and make you worth less." Instead he drew his right hand back and then hit her face hard once again with the back of it. "That, however, will heal."

Ziva coughed and bent forward and spit some blood on his shoes. He just smiled at her. "I hope you enjoy your life from here on, Ziva. In other words, I hope you suffer as much as possible for betraying me and ruining my life." he took hold of her chin and forced her to look straight into his cold eyes. He was so close to her face that she could feel his breath. "_No one _double crosses me..._ever._"

"Who the hell are these men?" Ziva asked.

Collins laughed at the fire in her voice. "They work for an old friend of mine. I usually only contact him when I want to introduce little rats like you to him." he studied her from top to toe and grinned. "And he has a special place in society for women like you. You can count on that."

"Who is he then?!" Ziva continued to enquirer, hoping to find out as much as possible, knowing knowledge was in a way power. And right now she needed all the power she could gain.

"You'll find out soon enough." he said with a smirk. "If we ever meet again, which I doubt, but IF we do, I'm sure you'll be a quite different person. A changed person." he laughed out loud at his own promise and then put a hand behind her neck and held her head still as he pressed his lips to hers and kissed her. She struggled but the handcuffs were too tight and she also had one of the men holding her by her shoulders. When Collins stopped kissing her and let go of her neck she grimaced and tried to kick him in her rage.

"I don't understand. You seemed to like that so much last week." he said with sarcasm and patted her cheek lightly "Anyway that was a final goodbye." he then signaled for the men to load Ziva and Heidi into the back of the van. One of the men jumped inside and the one holding Heidi handed her over to him. Then the driver forced Ziva to walk backwards to the van and when she reached it she felt a pair of hands at her waist and soon she was being lifted from behind into the vehicle and placed on the floor. The last thing she saw before the doors closed before her eyes was Collins' back as he was walking over to a red sports car on the other side of the parking lot.

**To be continued**

**_So, please let me know what you think. It's important for me to know if people who read the story like it or not and why, because it makes it so much easier to keep writing. So in other words, please review._**


End file.
